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Article: ONE MAN'S MILK, ANOTHER'S POISON LACTASE ENZYME MUTANT GENE AGAINST LACTOSE INTOLERANCE DISCOVERED IN INTESTINAL CELLS.
- Article from:
- BIOWORLD Today
- Article date:
- January 18, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 A Thomson Healthcare Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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After a newborn mammal - human or subhuman - gropes for its mother's nipples, it starts swigging her milk. This complex fluid contains two key ingredients: a mineral, calcium, for building bones and teeth, and a sugar called lactose, for nutrition.
At first, that infant imbibes lactose in its disaccharide form - a bulky, paired sugar molecule. But as the nursing baby becomes a toddler, a year or two down the road, its mother begins to wean the child from suckling to eating solid food. As this weaning process begins, an enzyme, lactase-phlorizin, in the intestinal cells kicks in to split that indigestible milk sugar into two tummy-friendly monosaccharides.
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