What Enzyme Is Produced in the Stomach?
The primary enzyme produced in the stomach is pepsin.
Pepsin is a crucial digestive enzyme responsible for breaking down proteins in food. It's produced by specialized cells in the stomach lining called gastric chief cells. However, it's not released in its active form. Instead, chief cells secrete it as an inactive precursor called pepsinogen. This inactive form prevents the enzyme from digesting the stomach's own proteins. Pepsinogen is then activated into pepsin when it comes into contact with hydrochloric acid (HCl), which is also secreted by the stomach. Once activated, pepsin efficiently breaks down proteins into smaller peptides, preparing them for further digestion in the small intestine.
Additional Stomach Enzymes:
While pepsin is the main enzyme, the stomach also produces a small amount of gastric lipase, which helps digest fats. However, the majority of fat digestion occurs in the small intestine.
- Pepsin: Breaks down proteins.
- Gastric Lipase: Breaks down fats (in smaller quantities compared to pancreatic lipase).
The pancreas, while not located in the stomach, plays a significant role in overall digestion, producing numerous enzymes that work in the small intestine. These include trypsin and other proteases that further break down peptides, as well as lipases for fat digestion and amylases for carbohydrate digestion. The stomach primarily focuses on initiating protein digestion and preparing food for further processing in the small intestine.
References: The information above is supported by multiple sources, including the provided references which state that pepsin is the main gastric enzyme produced by chief cells in its inactive form, pepsinogen, and that gastric lipase is also produced in the stomach, though less prominently than in the pancreas. Many other resources such as StatPearls, Verywellhealth, Quora, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Wikipedia, Cleveland Clinic, and Healthline corroborate this information.