Digestion enzymes are enzymes that break down polymeric macromolecules into their smaller building blocks. Digestive enzymes are found in the digestive tract of animals where they aid in the digestion of food as well as inside cells, especially in their lysosomes.
Digestion enzymes are classified by their substrates: proteases and peptidases split proteins into amino acids, lipases split fat into fatty acids, carbohydrases split carbohydrates such as starch into sugars, and nucleases split nucleic acids into nucleotides.
In the human digestive system, the main sites of digestion are the oral cavity, the stomach, the duodenum, and the jejunum and digestive enzymes are secreted by different glands: the salivary glands, the glands in the stomach, the pancreas, and the glands in the small intestines.
Oral cavity
In the oral cavity, salivary glands secrete ptyalin. It is a type of α-amylase, which digests starch into small segments of multiple sugars and into the individual soluble sugars. Secreted by small and large salivary glands.
Salivary glands also secrete lysozyme, which kills bacteria but is not classified as a digestive enzyme.
Summary of the actions of digestive enzymes:
Enzymes are also in your mouth, helping to break down food, as well as the teeth are.
Stomach
The enzymes that get secreted in the stomach are called gastric enzymes. These are the following:
Small intestine
Pancreatic enzymes
The pancreas is the main digestive gland in our body. It secretes the enzymes:
- Trypsin, is a peptidase, that breaks down peptides in the small intestine.
- Chymotrypsin, also a peptidase
- Steapsin, degrades triglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol.
- Carboxypeptidase, splits peptide fragments into individual amino acids. It is a protease.
- Several elastases that degrade the protein elastin and some other proteins.
- Several nucleases that degrade nucleic acids, like DNAase and RNAase
- Pancreatic amylase that, besides starch, glycogen and cellulose, degrades most other carbohydrates.
- Bile from the liver, which emulsifies fat, allowing more efficient use of lipases in the duodenum; in converting lipids to their component fatty acid and glycerol molecules
Proper small intestine enzymes
Five types of enzymes degrade disaccharides into monosaccharides:
The small intestine receives lipase, trypsin and amylase from the pancreas. They are transported from the pancreas to the duodenum through the pancreatic duct. Protein, fats and starch are broken down into smaller molecules. However, they are not fully broken down yet. This causes the enzymes of the small intestine to act upon them. These enzymes include peptidase, which breaks down peptides into amino acids and the enzyme maltase acts upon maltose which produces glucose. These molecules are absorbed by the villi in the small intestine and according to the molecule they are either absorbed by the lacteal or blood capillaries.
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