Cholesteryl ester degradation: Most dietary cholesterol is present in the free (nonesterified) form, with 10%–15% present in the esterified form. Cholesteryl esters are hydrolyzed by pancreatic cholesteryl ester hydrolase (cholesterol esterase), which produces cholesterol plus FFA (see Fig. 15.2). Activity of this enzyme is greatly increased in the presence of bile salts.
3.
Phospholipid degradation: Pancreatic juice is rich in the proenzyme of phospholipase A2 that, like procolipase, is activated by trypsin and, like cholesteryl ester hydrolase, requires bile salts for optimum activity. Phospholipase A2 removes one FA from carbon 2 of a phospholipid, leaving a lysophospholipid. For example, phosphatidylcholine (the predominant phospholipid of digestion) becomes lysophosphatidylcholine. The remaining FA at carbon 1 can be removed by lysophospholipase, leaving a glycerylphosphoryl base (for example, glycerylphosphorylcholine, see Fig. 15.2) that may be excreted in the feces, further degraded, or absorbed.
4. Control: Pancreatic secretion of the hydrolytic enzymes that degrade dietary lipids in the small intestine is hormonally controlled (Fig. 15.4). Cells in the mucosa of the lower duodenum and jejunum produce the peptide hormone cholecystokinin (CCK), in response to the presence of lipids and partially digested proteins entering these regions of the upper small intestine. CCK acts on the gallbladder (causing it to contract and release bile, a mixture of bile salts, phospholipids, and free cholesterol) and on the exocrine cells of the pancreas (causing them to release digestive enzymes). It also decreases gastric motility, resulting in a slower release of gastric contents into the small intestine (see p. 353). Other intestinal cells produce another peptide hormone, secretin, in response to the low pH of the chyme entering the intestine from the stomach. Secretin causes the pancreas to release a solution rich in bicarbonate that helps neutralize the pH of the intestinal contents, bringing them to the appropriate pH for digestive activity by pancreatic enzymes.
E. Absorption by enterocytes
FFA, free cholesterol, and 2-MAG are the primary products of lipid digestion in the jejunum. These, plus bile salts and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K), form mixed micelles (that is, disc-shaped clusters of a mixture of amphipathic lipids that coalesce with their hydrophobic groups on the inside and their hydrophilic groups on the outside). Therefore, mixed micelles are soluble in the aqueous environment of the intestinal lumen (Fig. 15.5). These particles approach the primary site of lipid absorption, the brush border membrane of the enterocytes. This microvilli-rich apical membrane is separated from the liquid contents of the intestinal lumen by an unstirred water layer that mixes poorly with the bulk fluid. The hydrophilic surface of the micelles facilitates the transport of the hydrophobic lipids through the unstirred water layer to the brush border membrane where they are absorbed. Bile salts are absorbed in the terminal ileum, with <5% being lost in the feces. [Note: Relative to other dietary lipids, cholesterol is only poorly absorbed by the enterocytes. Drug therapy (for example, with ezetimibe) can further reduce cholesterol absorption in the small intestine.] Because short-and medium-chain FA are water soluble, they do not require the assistance of mixed micelles for absorption by the intestinal mucosa.