In the stomach, chief cells release pepsinogen. This zymogen is activated by hydrochloric acid (HCl), which is released from parietal cells in the stomach lining. The hormone gastrin and the vagus nerve trigger the release of both pepsinogen and HCl from the stomach lining when food is ingested. HCl creates an acidic environment which allows pepsinogen to unfold and cleave itself in an autocatalytic fashion, thereby generating pepsin (the active form). Pepsin will digest up to 20% of ingested proteins by cleaving preferentially at carboxylic groups of aromatic amino acids such as phenylalanine and tyrosine. It will not cleave at bonds containing valine, alanine or glycine. Peptides may be further digested by other proteases (in the duodenum) and eventually absorbed by the body.
Pepsin is stored as pepsinogen so it will only be released when needed, and does not digest the body's own proteins in the stomach's lining.
Pepsin was also originaly used in the Pepsi Cola recipe, giving it its name.
See also
Other important digestive proteases are the pancreatic enzymes trypsin and chymotrypsin.
