Pepsin is an enzyme that is made in your stomach and breaks down proteins in food during digestion.
Your stomach acid changes the protein called pepsinogen into pepsin.
Gastric chief cells secrete pepsin as an inactive zymogen called pepsinogen.
Parietal cells within the stomach lining secrete hydrochloric acid that lowers the pH of the stomach.
Pepsin denatures ingested protein and converts it into amino acids.
Without pepsin, our body would be unable to digest proteins.
Pepsin is an aspartic protease that acts in food digestion in the mammal stomach.
An optimal pH of around 2 allows pepsin to operate in its natural acidic environment, while at neutral pH the protein is denatured.
If you don't have enough stomach acid, you can't digest food properly or absorb its nutrients.
This leads to indigestion, malnutrition and sometimes bacterial overgrowth.
Fortunately, hypochlorhydria is relatively simple to test and treat.