Emulsification and Absorption of Fats and Paraffins in the Intestine

Abstract

IT has been shown by Frazer^1,2,3 that a fat, such as triolein, is only partially digested in the intestine by the pancreatic juice. Hydrolysis determines the path taken by the absorbed fatty material, the fatty acid fraction passing by the portal vein to the liver, and the unhydrolysed portion by the lymphatic route into the systemic blood and thence to the fat depots. This conception is contrary to the previously accepted hypothesis of Verzar⁴ that the fat was completely hydrolysed, and the resultant fatty acid was carried through the intestinal membrane by means of a complex formation with the bile acids and resynthesized to fat again in the cells before being transported into the blood stream via the lacteals. The absorption of unhydrolysed fat raises a special complication, since triglyceride behaves physico-chemically very much like paraffins, which are not normally absorbed from the intestine. Furthermore, it is easy to show that bile acids or their salts form no complexes with either triglyceride or paraffin but only with fatty acid.