What type of food does pepsin break down

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Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Digestive enzymes are substances that help you digest your food. They are secreted released by the salivary glands and cells lining the stomach, pancreas , and small intestine. They do this by splitting the large, complex molecules that make up proteins, carbohydrates, and fats into smaller ones. This allows the nutrients from these foods to be easily absorbed into the bloodstream and carried throughout the body. Keep reading to learn about different types of digestive enzymes and how they work.

Digestive enzymes are released when we:. Some foods require certain digestive enzymes to break down the specific nutrients they contain. A variety of health conditions, especially those that affect the pancreas, can lead to deficiencies in digestive enzymes.

This is because the pancreas secretes several key enzymes. Often these deficiencies can be fixed by changing your diet. You can avoid certain foods or eat foods containing naturally occurring digestive enzymes. You can also take prescription or over-the-counter OTC enzyme supplements. Each of the many different digestive enzymes targets a specific nutrient and splits it up into a form that can eventually be absorbed.

The most important digestive enzymes are:. Keep reading to learn more about the most essential types of digestive enzymes. Amylase is important for digesting carbohydrates. It breaks down starches into sugars. Amylase is secreted by both the salivary glands and the pancreas. The measurement of amylase levels in the blood is sometimes used as an aid in diagnosing various pancreas or other digestive tract diseases.

High levels of amylase in the blood may mean you have:. Low levels of amylase may mean you have chronic pancreatitis ongoing inflammation of the pancreas or liver disease. The small intestine releases maltase, which is responsible for breaking down maltose malt sugar into glucose simple sugar. The body uses glucose for energy. During digestion, starch is partially transformed into maltose by amylases.

The maltase enzyme then changes maltose into glucose. This sugar is then either used immediately by the body or stored in the liver as glycogen for future use. Lactase also called lactase-phlorizin hydrolase is an enzyme that breaks down lactose , a sugar found in dairy products. It turns lactose into the simple sugars glucose and galactose. Lactase is produced by cells known as enterocytes that line the intestinal tract. Lactose that is not absorbed is fermented by bacteria in the gut.

This can cause you to have gas and an upset stomach. Lipase is responsible for the breakdown of fats into fatty acids and glycerol simple sugar alcohol. It's produced in small amounts by your mouth and stomach, and in larger amounts by your pancreas. Also called peptidases, proteolytic enzymes, or proteinases , these digestive enzymes break down proteins into amino acids.

They also play a role in numerous body processes, including:. Proteases are produced in the stomach and pancreas. The main ones are:.

Sucrase is secreted by the small intestine, where it breaks down sucrose the sugar in table sugar into fructose and glucose. These are simpler sugars that the body can absorb. Sucrase is found along the intestinal villi.

The other two are chymotrypsin and trypsin. Each digestive enzyme can cut off the relationship between specific types of amino acids, in which pepsin can effectively break down the peptide bond between hydrophobic amino acids and aromatic amino acids. These digestive enzymes work together to break down food proteins into peptides and amino acids, which are eventually absorbed by the small intestine.

Pepsinogen is the precursor of pepsin, which is released by chief cells of intestinal wall. Its primary structure is composed of 44 amino acids. Compared with pepsin, pepsinogen is stable in neutral and weak alkaline environment, but when exposed to hydrochloric acid in gastric juice, these 44 amino acids are removed in an autocatalytic manner and activated into pepsin.

Parietal cells of the gastric wall release hydrochloric acid HCl , pepsinogen can be activated by hydrochloric acid.

Gastrin and vagus nerves trigger the release of pepsinogen and hydrochloric acid from the gastric wall when eating. Hydrochloric acid produces acidic environment, which makes pepsinogen unfold and cleave in an autocatalytic manner, thus producing pepsin. Pepsin cuts 44 amino acids in pepsinogen into more pepsin.

Pepsin is a chain protein monomer composed of two similar folding domains separated by a deep cleft. The catalytic site of pepsin is formed at the junction of the domain, each domain contains two aspartic acid residues, Asp32 and Asp Under the catalysis of pepsin, the water molecule helps the active carboxyl group to bear positive and negative charges with aspartic acid and aspartic acid 32, respectively, which breaks the peptide bond in the protein.

The activity of pepsin was the highest in pH2. Therefore, in the solution below pH8. The stability of pepsin at high pH value is of great significance to the diseases caused by pharynx and larynx reflux. Pepsin is one of the main causes of mucosal injury in pharynx and larynx reflux. Pepsin still stays in the pharynx and larynx after pharyngeal reflux. Although the enzyme is in a neutral environment, it can be reactivated in the subsequent acid reflux event.

After pepsin is activated, laryngeal mucosa is exposed to active pepsin, resulting in a decrease in the expression of protective proteins, thus increasing the susceptibility to laryngeal injury. In addition, pepsin may also cause mucosal damage in weak acid or non-acid reflux events. When food enters the stomach, the strong muscles of the stomach's walls churn the food, mixing it with gastric juice to produce "chyme.

Tasting, smelling, seeing or just thinking about food can cause gastric glands in the stomach to secrete gastric juice. The hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice converts pepsinogen into pepsin by cleaving off a stretch of amino acids called a peptide. This reaction requires very acidic pH, ranging between 1 to 3. The acidic environment is needed for the generation and activity of pepsin.

The hydrochloric acid in the stomach generally provides a pH of about 1. The acid in the stomach causes food proteins to unfold in a process called denaturation. Denaturation exposes the protein's molecular bonds so that pepsin can access them and break the proteins into smaller fragments, called peptides or polypeptides. The small intestine will continue to break down proteins by chopping the peptides into amino acids, which can readily be absorbed into the blood stream.

Pepsin digests proteins for several hours before the partially digested food mix is slowly transferred to the small intestine.