Resumen de Hydrolysis of Triglycerides in Cream Using Porcine Pancreatic Lipase

Forest Robertson, Linda Passaro

• The development of an enzyme-mediated reaction for the first-year general, organic, and biological chemistry (GOB) teaching laboratory is of significant importance so that the factors that affect enzyme-mediated reactions can be adequately demonstrated, reinforcing the lecture portion of the GOB course. Some of the factors that affect these types of reactions include, but are not limited to, enzyme concentration, substrate concentration, and temperature. The experiment reported herein utilizes porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL) to catalyze the hydrolysis of triglycerides within cream. The amount of time required to afford triglyceride hydrolysis was probed by altering the concentration of PPL and the temperature at which the reaction was performed. In addition, to provide the students with a hands-on demonstration of how bile salts aid in the digestion of triglycerides, various trials were performed to explore the effect of altering bile salt concentration. Finally, the data obtained from the enzyme concentration trials, the temperature trials, and the bile salt concentration trials were graphed to provide a visual representation of how triglyceride hydrolysis, mediated by PPL, is affected by these various factors.