Digestive Case Study: Case Presentation Adrianne, a fifty-seven year old bank manager, had recently been waking up in the middle of the night with abdominal pain. This was happening several nights a week. She was also experiencing occasional discomfort in the middle of the afternoon. Adrianne decided to schedule an appointment with her physician.

1. Describe the functions of the following components of gastric juice.
a. Hydrochloric acid
HCL produced in the gastric juice by the parietal cells or oxyntic cells are associated with anti bacterial function , as well as breaking of the peptide bonds for easy function of for the peptidases , activates pepsinogen to form pepsin.
b. Pepsinogen
This is an inactive peptidase produced in the gastric secretion and it is acted on by HCL to convert it into active pepsin. Pepsin then acts on protein to break peptide bonds and form smaller peptides .
c. Pepsin :
This is the active form of pepsinogen and operates only in the acidic medium where it cleaves peptide linkages of amino acids to produce di and tripeptides
d. Intrinsic factor
Intrinsic factor is a glycoprotein produced by the parietal cells of the stomach in the secretion of the gastric juice and is essential in the absorption of vitamin B12 in the ileum