Location of Hydrolysis of Certain Disaccharides and Peptides in the Small Intestine

Abstract

THE problem of location of hydrolysis of oligosaccharides and peptides cannot yet be considered as finally solved. Based on the investigation of hydrolysis and absorption of oligosaccharides^1,2 and peptides^1,3, it was suggested that hydrolysis occurs within the intestinal cells. According to another point of view, the hydrolysis is not considered as being an essentially intracellular phenomenon, and it is accomplished on the external surface of the cell membrane through membrane or contact digestion^4,5. (Various aspects of the problem have been thoroughly discussed in A. M. Ugolev's monograph: Membrane (Contact) Digestion (Leningrad: U.S.S.R. Acad. Sci., 1963).) Lately some authors set forth a conception—which by itself is rather a compromise—that the hydrolysis develops intracellularly in the immediate proximity, or on the internal surface of, the membrane^6,7.