Fat Digestion: Intestinal Lipolysis and Product Absorption

Fat digestion in the breastfed newborn infant is a process catalyzed by three Upases. The process is initiated in stomach contents by gastric lipase and continues in the upper part of the small intestine by pancreatic colipase-dependent lipase and human milk bile-salt-stimulated lipase (BSSL). Development of powerful techniques in molecular biology has made it possible to gain better insight into the structure of these lipases, which is necessary for a detailed understanding of the different functional aspects. We shall briefly discuss recent advances in structural knowledge of the lipases as well as their functional implications. We shall focus mainly on the human enzymes but, when relevant, also discuss corresponding enzymes of other species.