Tragic Tale of a Protein Molecule - Essay Example

"Tragic Tale of a Protein Molecule" is an engrossing example of a paper on metabolic problems. I am a food molecule. More specifically, I am a protein molecule. Since I was not starch or sugar, I knew I did not need to be scared of mouth. So, I kept sleeping when the cruel human ate me up. But just as I got into the stomach, a horrible feeling awakened me. Oh! These were the red, scary walls of the stomach that had always horrified me in my dreams. Pepsin, son of HCl and pepsinogen secreted in the stomach, came to me and said, “Now, get prepared to be digested.

” I recognized him. He was the gastric enzyme, representing protease, which was going to disintegrate me into amino acids through hydrolysis. First, HCl broke the bonds that I shared with other protein molecules. I felt like taking a hot bath and saw myself disintegrate into amino acids, which were pretty molecules important for metabolism. I heard the walls of the stomach whisper, “We are now going to throw you over to the small intestine, to continue your digestion. We order you to leave.

” I had no choice but to leave the stomach, from where I was carried on in the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine. “Please forgive me”, I pleaded, but nobody listened. Trypsin and chymotrypsin, two pancreatic protease enzymes, waited for me, armed with weapons. They continued to disintegrate me into amino acids through hydrolysis. Amino acids, then, penetrated the intestinal lining due to their small dimensions, from where they entered the bloodstream through capillaries.

They were, then, carried by liquid blood plasma and red blood cells to manifold tissues for the creation and repair of cell structures. How unfaithful! They did not even look back at me to bid farewell. But how could they? I was no more. Revenge of the Protein MoleculeI tempted the human to eat up lots of me, that is, protein. My grandma had told me that the higher the protein intake, the greater is the Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR), which is an indicator of kidney function in patients with renal disease.

I knew that greater quantities of me will raise the GFR of the human, and I was happy because I had grudges against him. Everything happened according to my expectations. His GFR rose, and his kidneys started showing subnormal renal function. The digestion of a lot of protein raised the amino acid concentration in the plasma. These concentrated amino acids were filtered at the glomerulus, and they changed the sensitivity of the macula densa sensing mechanisms, by altering cell permeability. He was taken to the clinic immediately, where the physician wrote a protein tolerance test for him.

I was amused. The human went into the laboratory where he took his protein tolerance test. This test had two components: Stress GFR, and Tubular stress test. The test showed that there was an increase in GFR with proteinuria, which suggested that the person was suffering from renal injury. The physician then started the necessary treatment. The reader must be wondering how cruel I had been in the whole emergency scenario. All I want to say in my defense is that I hate people who do not take a balanced diet and take lots of one kind of food, which finally leads them toward emergency situations.

Had the human taken me in normal quantity, he would not have faced such a disaster.