ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the concept of compartmentation as one of the factors which control the flow of nutrients and metabolic information to the breast-fed infant. The compartments of major concern are the milk fat globule and the associated membrane, but the other units interact with the lipid compartments. Dietary fats or triacylglycerols (TG) cannot be absorbed as such by the enterocyte into the wall of the small intestine. In order for absorption to occur, dietary TG are converted to the more polar free fatty acids (FFA) and monoacylglycerols (MG) by the sequential action of these lipases, lingual, the bile salt-stimulated lipase (BSSL) native to human milk, and pancreatic lipase. Lipolysis in the stomach is accomplished by lingual and gastric lipases. The lingual lipase, at least in the rat, has much the greater activity of the two. Bitman et al. noted a linear increase in gastric lingual lipase activity postpartum. Lipids have been recognized as microbicidal agents in human milk.
