Intestinal saccharidase deficiencies

Stable Identifier
R-HSA-5659898
DOI
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Homo sapiens
ReviewStatus
5/5
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Defects in in two enzymes required for intestinal digestion of dietary carbohydrate, lactase (LCT, a domain of lactase-phlorizin hydrolase protein) and sucrase-isomaltase (SI), are annotated here. The first affects nursing infants; the second affects individuals after weaning.

The disaccharide lactose is a major constituent of human breast milk. To be taken up from the gut in the nursing infant, this sugar must first be hydrolyzed by LCT present on the external face of enterocytes in microvilli of the small intestine. Mutations that disrupt LCT activity are associated with acute illness in newborn children as lactose fermentation by gut bacteria leads to severe diarrhea. The condition is effectively treated by feeding affected infants a lactose-free formula. This congenital disease is distinct from the down-regulation of LCT expression after weaning in many human populations that is associated with a milder form of lactose intolerance in adults (Jarvela et al. 2009).

The starch in a post-weaning diet is digested by amylases to di- and oligosaccharides that must be further digested to monosaccharides in order to be taken up from the lumen of the small intestine into endothelial cells of the intestinal brush border. If they are not digested, a process in which enterocyte-associated SI plays a central role, they remain in the gut lumen and are fermented by gut bacteria, leading to osmotic and fermentative diarrhea (Naim et al. 2012; Van Beers et al. 1995).

Literature References
PubMed ID Title Journal Year
19639477 Molecular genetics of human lactase deficiencies

Kolho, KL, Torniainen, S, Järvelä, I

Ann. Med. 2009
23103643 Congenital sucrase-isomaltase deficiency: heterogeneity of inheritance, trafficking, and function of an intestinal enzyme complex

Zimmer, KP, Heine, M, Naim, HY

J. Pediatr. Gastroenterol. Nutr. 2012
7555019 Intestinal brush border glycohydrolases: structure, function, and development

Büller, HA, Dekker, J, Einerhand, AW, Grand, RJ, Van Beers, EH

Crit. Rev. Biochem. Mol. Biol. 1995
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