So the breakdown of lipids actually starts in the mouth. Your saliva has this little enzyme called lingual lipase, which breaks down these fats into something called diglycerides. These diglycyerides then make there way to the intestines, where they stimulate the pancreas to release lipase (another fat breaking enzyme!) and the pancreas to release bile. The bile and pancreatic juices both work together to break these diglycerides into fatty acids. It’s helpful to know some of the root words. Glycerol- the framework to which the fatty acids stick. Glyceride- think of this guy as several fatty acids stuck to a glycerol. Lipids- think fats, and their derivatives (our glyceride friends.) tri/di/mono- these are just number prefixes! Lipids are one glycerol molecule, and then either one, two, or three fatty acids attached, which is where you get mono(1)/di(2)/tri(3)glyceride from. I know this was long, but hopefully it helps!
The term used to describe an organic cofactor is that this common chemistry allow cells to use a small set of metabolic intermediates to carry chemical groups between different reactions. These group-transfer intermediates are the loosenly-bound organic cofactors, often called coenzymes.
