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Fat Digestion and Solubilisation in Disease

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Bile Acids in Health and Disease

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Abstract

Most foods contain large quantities of various fats, some of which are essential to life. Fat is not miscible with water. The assimilation of fat into a mainly watery organism therefore requires processes far more complex than those required for protein and carbohydrate assimilation. These processes are conveniently grouped under three headings: digestion, solubilisation and absorption. Digestion is an essentially chemical process comprising the hydrolysis of dietary fats — mainly long-chain triglycerides — into more polar lipolytic products — fatty acids and monoglycerides (the solutes). Solubilisation is an essentially physical process comprising the incorporation of these amphiphilic molecules into water-soluble particles formed by biliary amphipathic lipids (the solvent), so rendering previously insoluble lipids dispersible into aqueous solution. Absorption comprises the delivery of these water-soluble particles down a concentration gradient through the mucosal unstirred water layer to the intestinal mucosal cell membrane; it is not considered further here.

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  1. P. L. Zentler-Munro & D. R. Fine

    Present address: Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, St George’s Hospital Medical School, London, SW170RE, UK

    P. L. Zentler-Munro, D. R. Fine & T. C. Northfield

  2. Southampton General Hospital, UK

    D. R. Fine

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  1. P. L. Zentler-Munro
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  2. D. R. Fine
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  3. T. C. Northfield
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, St. George’s Hospital Medical School, London, UK

    Tim Northfield , Riadh Jazrawi  & Patrick Zentler-Munro ,  & 

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© 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Zentler-Munro, P.L., Fine, D.R., Northfield, T.C. (1988). Fat Digestion and Solubilisation in Disease. In: Northfield, T., Jazrawi, R., Zentler-Munro, P. (eds) Bile Acids in Health and Disease. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1249-6_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1249-6_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7054-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1249-6

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