Lexic.us

Definition of Pepsin

1. Noun. An enzyme produced in the stomach that splits proteins into peptones.

Definition of Pepsin

1. n. An unorganized proteolytic ferment or enzyme contained in the secretory glands of the stomach. In the gastric juice it is united with dilute hydrochloric acid (0.2 per cent, approximately) and the two together constitute the active portion of the digestive fluid. It is the active agent in the gastric juice of all animals.

Definition of Pepsin

1. Noun. (enzyme) A digestive enzyme that chemically digests, or breaks down, proteins into shorter chains of amino acids. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Pepsin

1. a digestive enzyme of the stomach [n -S]

Medical Definition of Pepsin

1. Acid protease from stomach of vertebrates. Cleaves preferentially between two hydrophobic amino acids (e.g. F L, F Y) and will attack most proteins except protamines, keratin and highly glycosylated proteins. A single chain phosphoprotein (327 amino acids, 34.5 kD) released from the enzymatically inactive zymogen, pepsinogen, by autocatalysis at acid pH in the presence of HCl. One of the peptides cleaved off in this process is a pepsin inhibitor and has to be further degraded to allow the pepsin to have full activity. This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Pepsin

Literary usage of Pepsin

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Journal of the American Chemical Society by American Chemical Society (1888)
""On the basis that 1 part of a pure pepsin is capable of dissolving 1000 times its weight of coagulated egg albumen in G hours, ..."

2. A Text-book of physiology: For Medical Students and Physicians by William Henry Howell (1915)
"In spite of much work, the chemical nature of pepsin is undetermined. Pekelharing* has prepared pepsin from gastric juice by dialysis, the substance ..."

3. American Druggist (1893)
"The scales of this pepsin are somewhat opaque and have a slight bitter taste, ... Some of the above-mentioned improvements in the manufacture of pepsin have ..."

4. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences by Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (U.S.) (1908)
"Woch., 1908, xlv, 542) follows the principle that castor oil made turbid by the addition of hydrochloric acid is cleared up only by pepsin: filtered gastric ..."

5. The Practitioner by Gale Group, ProQuest Information and Learning Company (1884)
"The author considers that the dose of pepsin now employed is probably too ... pepsin should never be given along with alkalies, as is sometimes still done ..."

6. A Textbook of pharmacology and therapeutics, or, the Action of drugs in by Arthur Robertson Cushny (1918)
"pepsin. The pharmacopoeial preparations of pepsin are generally obtained from the pig's stomach. It digests only in acid solution, the best results being ..."

7. The Chemical Constitution of the Proteins by Robert Henry Aders Plimmer (1908)
"The Action of pepsin. Amino acids have been described by various authors as occurring ... One might have expected that pepsin would act upon certain of the ..."

8. The Journal of General Physiology by Society of General Physiologists, Rockefeller Institute, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (1920)
"I. A Method for the Quantitative Determination of pepsin. Considerable experimental evidence has been obtained by various authors to show that enzymes are ..."

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