[The effect of amino acids, sugars and fats on activation of pancreatic enzymes].

BACKGROUND

Investigations of pancreatic enzymes have again become a topic. Attention concentrates rather on exogenous activators. The objective of the present work was to assess to what extent some amino acids, sugars and fats affect the activity of pancreatic enzymes "in vitro".

METHODS AND RESULTS

The author compared the degree of hydrolysis of enzyme-substrate with the degree of hydrolysis enzyme-substrate-activator. Twenty-four amino acids, 25 sugars and 7 fats were analyzed. Of the 24 tested amino acids only six activate amylase: cysteine 39.9 x, histidine 21 x, lysine 3.8 x, methionine 3.3 x, tryptophan 2.9 x and tyrosine 1.5 x. As compared with control groups, the differences are significant, p < 0.01 with the exception of tyrosine (p > 0.05). All amino acids activate lipase: serine 3.4 x, aspartic acid 3.1 x, asparagine 3.0 x, hydroxyproline 2.7 x alanine 1.1 x (p > 0.05). Of the investigated sugars none activated amylase, 14 do not activate picase. Fructose activates lipase 1.9 x, inosine 1.8 x, laevulose 1.7 x, maltose 1.6 x, sucrose 1.3 x, xylitol 1.2 x, sorbitol 1.1 x, glucosamine 2.6 x and galactosamine 2.0 x. Pure fats do not activate pancreatic enzymes. Butter causes a rise of trypsin activity by 1.3 x, lard of lipase activity 2 x and trypsin 6.2 x.

CONCLUSIONS

In in vitro experiments evidence was provided that cysteine, histidine lysine and methionine tryptophan and tyrosine activate amylase, all 24 tested amino acids activate lipase as well as trypsin to a varying extent. The investigated sugars do not activate amylase at all; lipase is activated by 10 sugars and trypsin by four sugars. Pure fats do not activate any pancreatic enzymes.