Library · Cell
Gastric chief cell
Make it clearer
At the base of the stomach glands, especially in the upper part called the fundus, live the chief cells. Their job is to secrete pepsinogen, and pepsinogen is a zymogen: an enzyme that leaves the cell still switched off.
Switched off from being what? From being pepsin, the enzyme that cuts the proteins in food into smaller pieces called polypeptides.
And it does not switch on by itself. It is switched on by the gastric acid made by other neighboring cells, the parietal cells. At that low pH, that is, in that very acidic environment, pepsinogen cleaves itself and becomes active pepsin.
Think of a tool that leaves the factory with the safety on and unlocks only where it is meant to work. The chief cell is stimulated by the parasympathetic nervous system and by a hormone from the stomach itself, gastrin.
In brief
Chief cells sit at the base of the gastric glands of the fundus and secrete a zymogen called pepsinogen.
Pepsinogen is the inactive form of pepsin, the enzyme that cuts proteins into polypeptides.
Only gastric acid from the parietal cells activates it: the low pH lets it cleave itself.
A tool that leaves the factory with the safety on and unlocks only where it is meant to work.
They are stimulated by the parasympathetic system and by the hormone gastrin.
Sources (2)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingPhysiology, Stomach, StatPearlsPublished
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingPhysiology, Pepsin, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated