In: Anatomy and Physiology
describe the following process of the digestive system, the digestion and absorption of amino acids
ANSWER: Dietary proteins are very large complex molecules that cannot be absorbed by the intestine. To be absorbed it must be broken down into small aminoacids. It happens by the process of digestion at various levels.
Protein digestion in stomach happens through gastric acid. It helps in the denaturation of proteins. This gastric juice helps in the conversion of pepsinogen to pepsin. The pepsin which gets activated breaks down proteins at the aromatic amino acids. Once the food comes out of the stomch and enters into the duodenum, the pancreatic enzymes like trypsin, chymotrypsin carboxypeptidase would act on the protein molecule to break them dowm into small peptids and aminoacids. Once broken down into single amino acids they are ready for absorption by the brush border epithelium. Also the brush border epithelium has an enzyme named aminopeptidase that acts on many peptides to nreak its its bond to form aminoacids.