Question

2.Explain the role of pancreatic lipase and colipase on lipid digestion.

Answer 1

The lipid digesting pancreatic enzymes are pancreatic lipase,cholesterol esterase and phospholipase.Pancreatic lipase enzyme hydrolyses neutral fat ( triglycerides)into fatty acids and monoglycerides.By far the most important enzyme that digest triglycerides is pancreatic lipase,which can digest within 1 minute all triglycerides it can reach.This enzyme can bind to the triglycerides.But normally these triglycerides will be covered by bile salts and phospholipids in the intestine.Hence the optimal activity of pancreatic lipase requires a protein cofactor colipase.This will bind to the lipase and stabilize the active conformation and expose more hydrophobic sites on pancreatic lipase. This facilitates the activity of lipase.