Studies on the metabolism of glycerol by the small intestine in vitro and in vivo

Current schemes for the digestion and absorption of long-chain triglycerides (Bergstrom & Borgstrom, 1955; Frazer, 1958) suggest that a portion is partly hydrolysed to free fatty acids and lower glycerides which, after absorption, are resynthe- sized to triglyceride in the mucosal cell. Another portion is completely hydrolysed, and the free fatty acids are esterified in the mucosa with an endogenous glyceride-glycerol precursor which is thought to be intracellular glucose The glycerol, liberated in the gut lumen, is said to be a poor glyceride-glycerol precursor in the gut mucosa, for when rats were given labelled glycerol with either triglyceride or free fatty acid there was negligible incorporation of the label into either small-gut mucosal lipids