Pathway: Intestinal lipid absorption
Reactions in pathway: Intestinal lipid absorption :
Intestinal lipid absorption
Niemann-Pick C1 Like 1 (NPC1L1) protein in enterocytes is critical for intestinal cholesterol and phytosterol absorption, and is the target of the drug ezetimibe (Davis et al. 2004).
Nutrient absorption occurs mostly in the small intestine. Processes annotated here include the uptake of dietary cholesterol and phytosterols, and of monosaccharides. Movement of the final products of digestion out of the intestinal lumen is mediated by arrays of transporters associated with the apical and basolateral surfaces of enterocytes (Yamada 2015).
Fats, carbohydrates, and proteins are broken down to small molecules - fatty acids, cholesterol, and glycerol, monosaccharides, and amino acids - within the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract and absorbed into the body principally through enterocytes in the small intestine. Some of the hydrolases that catalyze these reactions are secreted into the gastrointestinal tract; others are associated with the luminal surfaces of enterocytes. Movement of the final products of digestion out of the intestinal lumen is mediated by arrays of transporters associated with the lumenal and basolateral surfaces of enterocytes (Yamada 2015).