Pancreatic lipase and pancreatic lipase-related protein 2, but not pancreatic lipase-related protein 1, hydrolyze retinyl palmitate in physiological conditions.

The major sources of vitamin A in the human diet are retinyl esters (mainly retinyl palmitate) and provitamin A carotenoids. It has been shown that classical pancreatic lipase (PL) is involved in the luminal hydrolysis of retinyl palmitate (RP), but it is not known whether pancreatic lipase-related proteins 1 (PLRP1) and 2 (PLRP2), two other lipases recovered in the human pancreatic juice, are also involved. The aim of this study was to assess whether RP acts a substrate for these lipase-related proteins.