American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 74, No. 6, 868-870,
December 2001
© 2001 American Society for Clinical Nutrition
Intestinal Lipid Metabolism
edited by Charles M Mansbach II, Patrick Tso, and Arnis Kuksis, 2001, 434 pages, hardcover. $135.00. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
Vay Liang W Go
UCLA Center for Human Nutrition 900 Veteran Avenue Room 13-146 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1742 E-mail: vlwgo{at}ucla.edu
This textbook is an outstanding reference on lipid metabolism. It covers, as the editors put it, material from the "ancient texts" of the ‘60s and ‘70s: the principle concepts and basic knowledge on lipid digestion and absorption and current knowledge of the peptide system that regulates fat intake, intestinal apolipoprotein gene expression, and interactions between lipid metabolism and genes. The editors recruited the premier investigators in the field to contribute chapters in this book.
This 22-chapter book provides a complete picture of the basic science of intestinal lipid digestion and absorption, lipid resynthesis and transport at the enterocyte, regulation of intestinal metabolism of cholesterol and interesterified fats, and chylomicron formation and secretion. This book also contains a description of the role of the brain-gut interaction on regulation of fat intake by enterostatin and procolipase and the role of apolipoprotein A-IV as a satiety factor. The subject matter on regulation of intestinal apolipoprotein gene expression at both the transcriptional and posttranslational levels is superbly covered. Each chapter is well written and the references are up-to-date; however, some references are not comprehensive. Each chapter provides current knowledge on the subject matter discussed and also provides research questions that need to be answered. The discussion of the relevancy of intestinal lipid metabolism to clinical nutrition is limited, except in the last chapter ("Structured Triacylglycerols in Clinical Nutrition").
This book provides substantial investigative knowledge of intestinal lipid metabolism and should help determine the appropriate use of structured triacylglycerols in clinical nutrition in the near future. It is thus of great value to basic scientists, clinical investigators, and students working in the field of lipid metabolism and is an excellent reference text for clinical nutritionists interested in the current state of the art concerning intestinal lipid metabolism.
