Gastric acid

Gastric acid or stomach acid is the acidic component – hydrochloric acid of gastric juice, produced by parietal cells in the gastric glands of the stomach lining. With a pH of between one and three, gastric acid plays a key role in the digestion of proteins by activating digestive enzymes, which together break down the long chains of amino acids of proteins. Gastric acid is regulated in feedback systems to increase production when needed, such as after a meal. Other cells in the stomach produce bicarbonate, a base, to buffer the fluid, ensuring a regulated pH. These cells also produce mucus – a viscous barrier to prevent gastric acid from damaging the stomach. The pancreas further produces large amounts of bicarbonate and secretes bicarbonate through the pancreatic duct to the duodenum to neutralize gastric acid passing into the digestive tract.

The secretion is a complex and relatively energetically expensive process. Parietal cells contain an extensive secretory network (called canaliculi) from which the hydrochloric acid is secreted into the lumen of the stomach. The pH of gastric acid is 1.5 to 3.5 in the human stomach lumen, a level maintained by the proton pump H⁺/K⁺ ATPase.^[1] 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 acidic gastric juice also contains digestive enzymes produced by other cells in the gastric glands – gastric chief cells. Gastric chief cells secrete an inactivated pepsinogen. Once in the stomach lumen gastric acid activates the proenzyme to pepsin. Gastric acid further inhibits the survival and progress of many pathogens in the stomach

^ Marieb EN, Hoehn K (2018). Human Anatomy and Physiology (11th ed.). Pearson Education. p. 1264. ISBN 978-0-13-458099-9.

[1] Marieb EN, Hoehn K (2018). Human Anatomy and Physiology (11th ed.). Pearson Education. p. 1264. ISBN 978-0-13-458099-9.

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