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No microbial growth in platings of the gastric juice of patients with gastric ulcer and chronic anacidic gastritis was observed. It means that the absence of hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice does not deprive it of any antimicrobial action. The possible role of lysozyme in providing sterility of the proximal part of the gastro-intestinal tract was studied. Eighty patients with chronic diseases of the digestive organs were observed. It was noted that the levels of lysozyme in the gastric juice was high and markedly exceeded the maximum concentrations required for lysis of organisms most resistant to it. The maximum concentration was determined at pH of the gastric juice equal to 7.0-7.5 (265 gamma/ml+/-28). No lysozyme in the content of the duodenum and jejunal juice was found in most cases. Its presence in the above parts of the gastro-intestinal tract was mainly associated with microbial growth. The maximum concentration of lysozyme (40 gamma/ml) in the jejunal juice was observed in a female patient with chronic enterocolitis and significant microbial proliferation in the thin colon (more than 10(4) microbial bodies per 1 ml of the juice). Such parallelism between the presence of lysozyme in the gastric juice and microbial proliferation in it may be considered as a protective-adoptive reaction of the host.