- #1
Satonam
- 38
- 1
I've been reading about the human digestive system and diving deeper into the details, however I can't seem to find a webpage that answers my questions. All my current knowledge can be summed by these two links:
https://jonbarron.org/article/physiology-small-intestine-part-1
https://jonbarron.org/article/physiology-small-intestine-part-2
The epithelium in the small intestine is lined by villi and microvilli which are responsible for transporting nutrients, fats, lipids, sugars, amino acids, etc. However, each microvilli is specific to the nutrient it absorbs. What I'd like to know is, how do enterocytes differentiate between various nutrients and target them? I know, as per the article, that vitamins and minerals are absorbed indirectly; they latch onto fats and amino acids, which in turn latch onto sodium ions, and ride through the enterocytes and into the bloodstream like a trojan horse.
Reading this, it seems to me that the body doesn't "see" the fats or the amino acids, it only detects sodium -which happens to bind to these nutrients and conveniently reel them in. Furthermore, isolated minerals are actually treated as toxins by the body, they are also "unseen" by our metabolism; the only reason we absorb these minerals is because they hide in other nutrients. They're like refugees hiding in the trunk of your car to cross the border.
My question:
How do fat-enterocytes identify fats while amino acid enterocytes identify and target each individual amino acid? Are minerals somehow filtered too? Or can an Fe particle latch onto any fat or amino acid and ride them into the bloodstream indiscriminately through it's vehicle's specific gate?
https://jonbarron.org/article/physiology-small-intestine-part-1
https://jonbarron.org/article/physiology-small-intestine-part-2
The epithelium in the small intestine is lined by villi and microvilli which are responsible for transporting nutrients, fats, lipids, sugars, amino acids, etc. However, each microvilli is specific to the nutrient it absorbs. What I'd like to know is, how do enterocytes differentiate between various nutrients and target them? I know, as per the article, that vitamins and minerals are absorbed indirectly; they latch onto fats and amino acids, which in turn latch onto sodium ions, and ride through the enterocytes and into the bloodstream like a trojan horse.
Reading this, it seems to me that the body doesn't "see" the fats or the amino acids, it only detects sodium -which happens to bind to these nutrients and conveniently reel them in. Furthermore, isolated minerals are actually treated as toxins by the body, they are also "unseen" by our metabolism; the only reason we absorb these minerals is because they hide in other nutrients. They're like refugees hiding in the trunk of your car to cross the border.
My question:
How do fat-enterocytes identify fats while amino acid enterocytes identify and target each individual amino acid? Are minerals somehow filtered too? Or can an Fe particle latch onto any fat or amino acid and ride them into the bloodstream indiscriminately through it's vehicle's specific gate?