Where is alpha-glucosidase produced?
Like the majority of human enzymes, each form of alpha-glucosidase is produced in special cell organelles. A precursor of the enzyme is first synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum. This is where the first step in the maturing process towards the mature enzyme takes place.
This is followed by transport to the so-called Golgi apparatus. Here, maturation also takes place. In the Golgi apparatus, the enzyme is packed into special vesicles and transported to its destination.
The destination differs depending on the tissue. In liver and muscles, the target are special intracellular granules in which glucose is stored as glycogen. In the intestine and kidney, the transport to the cell membrane takes place. Here, the vesicles are emptied, since the site of action of alpha-glucosidase is outside the cells. The lysosomal alpha-glucosidase is packed into vesicles that fuse with the membrane of the lysosomes.
What is beta-glucosidase?
Beta-glucosidases are enzymes which, like alpha-glucosidases, cleave glycosidic bonds when water is consumed. While alpha-glucosidases dissolve alpha-glycosidic bonds, beta-glucosidases cleave beta-glycosidic bonds. The difference between the two types of bonds lies in the arrangement of an alcohol group of the linked sugars.
How this behaves is determined by various complicated factors. Humans can only split beta-glycosidic bonds to a limited extent. This plays a role in the utilization of lactose, for example.
Lactose is found in products containing milk and is commonly called lactose. As many people in Central Europe do not produce lactase, the enzyme that cleaves the beta-glycosidic bond of lactose, due to evolutionary reasons, lactose intolerance exists in these people. Furthermore, there are deficits in the utilization of cellulose. Since humans do not have an enzyme that can break down cellulose into its components, it is considered to be a dietary fibre that cannot be digested and is excreted directly.
What is transglucosidase?
A transglucosidase is an enzyme that occurs in the human body and plays an important role in building and breaking down glycogen. It is also known as a glucan transferase. Its main task is to move monosaccharides, disaccharides or even oligosaccharides with three sugar molecules within the glycogen.
This shift is especially important for the degradation of glucose molecules that have more than one bond to an adjacent glucose molecule. If this is the case, the enzymes that are normally responsible for the degradation of the glycogen cannot continue to work, because such connections between a glucose molecule with two others are an obstacle. For this reason, transglucosidase is able to break the link between the chain of glucose molecules with multiple bonds and transfer the chain of di- or oligosaccharides or the monosaccharide released to another free end of the glycogen. In the following, the degradation of the glycogen can be continued for the further provision of energy for the body.
