Description
Pancreatic elastase is an anionic endoprotease of the serine protease family with a molecular weight of 26kDa.
Pancreatic elastase plays an important role in the digestion of food by breaking down ingested protein. It is exclusively produced in the exocrine tissue of the pancreas and is afterwards secreted into the duodenum. After its activation, pancreas elastase cleaves peptides after neutral amino acids. Pancreatic elastase itself remains undigested during the intestinal transit and is a good non-invasive biomarker to determine the secretory function of the exocrine pancreas tissue.
In human faeces it is 5–6 fold more concentrated than in pancreatic juice. The stool concentration reflects the secretory capacity of the pancreas.
