Digestion des lipides Alimentaires : intérêt de la lipase gastrique humaine ?

The bioavailability of lipid nutrients depends on a complex process: digestion by lipases in the stomach then in the intestine, uptake by the enterocytes and transport to the different cells of the body. The importance of the role played by the gastric lipase in this process was underestimated for a long time. However, its action in healthy subjects allows lipid emulsification, which creates a lipid/water interface essential for the hydrolysis of triglycerides, and digestion of a part of the ingested triglycerides that releases fatty acids, which stimulate the secretion of pancreatic enzymes and allow activation of pancreatic colipase-dependant lipase. In subjects having a decrease in pancreatic secretion (elderly people) or suffering from temporary (newborn infants) or pathological (cystic fibrosis, chronic pancreatitis) pancreatic insufficiency, gastric lipase plays also an efficient role in the duodenum, where it benefits from favourable conditions. Moreover, the action of gastric lipase is modulated by the properties of the lipid interface that is exploitable in clinical nutrition to produce formulas designed to improve the fatty acid bioavailability in subjects suffering from pancreatic insufficiency.