Specificity of digestive lipases in hydrolysis of wax esters and triglycerides studied in anchovy and other selected fish.

The physiological specificity of fat digestion in several species of marine fish was studied by incubating a variety of synthetic and natural lipid substrates in fish intestinal fluid. Wax ester and triglyceride hydrolyses were studied in vivo and in vitro. In vivo feeding studies showed triglyceride hydrolysis and reesterification in the gut occurred 4 times faster than wax ester metabolism. In vitro comparisons of wax and triglyceride lipolysis always showed triglycerides to be hydrolyzed faster than wax esters; however, wide variation in the ratio occurred among different batches of intestinal juice. Ca. 50% of the 2 monoglycerides formed in the lipolytic sequence were hydrolyzed. Esters of lipase resistent fatty acids (20:4 and 20:5) were cleaved faster than normal fatty acid esters (18:2 and 18:3). Two of the species studied, the northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax and the jack mackerel, Trachurus symmetricus, empty lipase(s) into their gall bladders and produce-phospholipid free bile.