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Pepsin / ˈ p ɛ p s ɪ n / is an endopeptidase that breaks down proteins into smaller peptides and amino acids. It is one of the main digestive enzymes in the digestive systems of humans and many other animals, where it helps digest the proteins in food. Pepsin is an aspartic protease, using a catalytic aspartate in its active site. [2]
Proteolysis in organisms serves many purposes; for example, digestive enzymes break down proteins in food to provide amino acids for the organism, while proteolytic processing of a polypeptide chain after its synthesis may be necessary for the production of an active protein.
It is produced in the stomach by gastric chief cells in its inactive form pepsinogen, which is a zymogen. Pepsinogen is then activated by the stomach acid into its active form, pepsin. Pepsin breaks down the protein in the food into smaller particles, such as peptide fragments and amino acids.
The parietal cell releases bicarbonate into the bloodstream in the process, which causes a temporary rise of pH in the blood, known as an alkaline tide. The gastric juice also contains digestive enzymes produced by other cells in the gastric glands – gastric chief cells. Gastric chief cells secrete an inactivated pepsinogen.
The proenzyme Pepsinogen, with the exposure to hydrochloric acid gets converted into the active enzyme pepsin, the proteolytic enzyme of the stomach. Hydrochloric acid (HCl) provides the acidic pH (pH 1.8) optimal for pepsins. Rennin is a proteolytic enzyme found in gastric juice of infants which helps in the digestion of milk proteins.
This type of cell also secretes gastric lipase enzymes, which help digest triglycerides into free fatty acids and di- and mono-glycerides. [6] There is also evidence that the gastric chief cell secretes leptin in response to the presence of food in the stomach. Leptin has been found in the pepsinogen granules of chief cells. [7]
The gastric glands open into gastric pits in the mucosa. The gastric mucosa is covered in surface mucous cells that produce the mucus necessary to protect the stomach's epithelial lining from gastric acid secreted by parietal cells in the glands, and from pepsin, a secreted digestive enzyme. Surface mucous cells follow the indentations and ...
Progastricsin also known as pepsinogen C or pepsinogen II is a pepsinogen precursor of the ... This enzyme is converted into its active mature form at low pH by ...