Stomach Acid & Pepsin Activation: Understanding HCl's Role

Aids in protein digestion

- Pepsin catalyzes the hydrolysis of peptide bonds in proteins.

-Pepsinogen is inactive and must first be activated by the acidic environment of the stomach and cleavage of a certain portion of its polypeptide chain to produce active pepsin.

-HCl in the stomach provides this acidic environment necessary for the activation of pepsinogen into active pepsin