Product name:Pepsin
Product description:Pepsin is an enzyme whose precursor form (pepsinogen) is released by the chief cells in the stomach and that degrades food proteins into peptides. It was discovered in 1836 by Theodor Schwann who also coined its name from the Greek word pepsis, meaning digestion (peptein: to digest).It was the first animal enzyme to be discovered, and, in 1929, it became one of the first enzymes to be crystallized, by John H. Northrop.Pepsin is a digestive protease.
Pepsin is one of three principal protein-degrading, or proteolytic, enzymes in the digestive system, the other two being chymotrypsin and trypsin. The three enzymes were among the first to be isolated in crystalline form. During the process of digestion, these enzymes, each of which is specialized in severing links between particular types of amino acids, collaborate to break down dietary proteins into their components, i.e., peptides and amino acids, which can be readily absorbed by the intestinal lining. Pepsin is most efficient in cleaving peptide bonds between hydrophobic and preferably aromatic amino acids such as phenylalanine, tryptophan, and tyrosine.
Application:Pepsin is commonly used in the preparation of F(ab')2 fragments from antibodies.Pepsin was also put into chewing gum
Storage:Pepsins should be stored at very cold temperatures (between ?80 °C and ?20 °C) to prevent autolysis (self-cleavage). Autolysis may also be prevented by storage of pepsins at pH 11 or by using modified pepsins (e.g., by reductive methylation). When the pH is adjusted back to 4.0 activity returns.(It is permanently denatured at pH 11, activity does not return when pH is lowered.)[citation needed