Enzymes >>>> Enzymes and hormone-like regulators of digestion

Enzymes and hormone-like regulators of digestion.

Digestion of food in humans captures three sections of the digestive tract: the oral cavity, stomach and small intestine. In each of these sections, the ducts of the glands that participate in the digestion processes and secrete a digestive secretion (digestive juice), containing certain sets of enzymes that contribute to the breakdown of nutrients, exit. What exactly do enzymes break down?

All enzymes involved in the digestion process can be divided into four groups:

Enzymes that help to digest proteins (peptides) - proteolytic (gastrixin, pepsin, trypsin, chymotrypsin, elastase);
Enzymes that help digest fats (lipids) - lipolytic (bile acids, lipase, phospholipase, cholesterol esterase, carboxypeptidase, aminopeptidase);
Enzymes that help digest carbohydrates - glucanolytic or amylolytic (alpha-amylase, oligo-1,6-glucosidase);
Enzymes that help digest nucleic acids and nucleotides - nucleinolytic (ribonuclease, deoxyribonuclease).

The secretory functions of the glands that release enzymes into the digestive tract are controlled by a system of hormone-like substances. These substances are regulators of digestion, they are formed in the mucous membrane of the stomach or intestines, in which the exit ducts of the digestive glands are located. Depending on the composition in which food enters a particular part of the digestive system, these hormone-like substances stimulate the secretion of the digestive glands. In addition, they are sensitive to the location of food in a specific section of the digestive tract and when it moves from one section to another, they finish stimulating the secretion in that section of the digestive tract that the food left.

The most famous regulators of the digestive system are:

Histamine and gastrin formed in the gastric mucosa stimulate the production of hydrochloric acid and pepsin;
Enterogastron, formed in the duodenal mucosa, inhibits the production of hydrochloric acid and pepsin;
Secretin, cholecystokine, chymodenine are formed in the intestinal mucosa - they stimulate pancreatic juice and bile secretion;
Enterocrinin is formed in the intestinal mucosa - stimulates the intestinal glands;
Willikinin, formed in the intestinal mucosa - stimulates intestinal absorption;
Acetylcholine - regulates the secretion of the pancreas;
Somatostatin - inhibits gastrin and cholecystokine.

A healthy body is able to produce all the enzymes that a person needs for the digestion process. Some symbiotes (intestinal microflora) also participate in the process of human digestion, supplying him with vitamins and taking part in the processes of fermentation and decomposition of substances not assimilated by the human body.

Violation of the secretion of digestive regulators leads to an imbalance in the processes of digestion, and insufficient release of enzymes for digestion of food complicates the processes of absorption of food elements and their entry into various cells of the body. Sometimes the low activity of enzymes or their insufficient secretion lead to the fact that in conditions of high permeability of the intestinal mucosa, native proteins are absorbed (retaining the original structure, not changed), which, with increased sensitivity of the body, can cause allergic reactions and intolerance to certain food products (for example: eggs, milk).