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The synthetic peptides AC-Glu-Phe-Phe (NO2)-Arg-amide (peptide VP) and AC-Ile-Glu-Phe-Phe (NO2)-Arg-amide (peptide VIP) are more readily hydrolyzed by human pepsin in gastric juice of patients of gastritis than those of duodenal ulcer and normal subjects. The kinetic parameters suggest that S3 subsite of the enzyme plays a role in the elevation of enzyme activity in gastric disease.

An immunogenic acid stable esterase of gastric origin was purified from normal gastric juice. Specific antibodies were obtained by solid immunoadsorbents and were used for indirect immunoenzyme histology on gastric resection specimens. This esterase proved to be a cell specific marker for gastric chief cells. Different patterns of chief cell alterations in gastritis and cancer were observed.

The authors describe a method designed by them for assessing gastric juice proteolysis relative to different protein-containing foods, commonly used in nutrition (beef, pork, mutton, etc). Investigations involved the use of gastric juice from healthy persons and patients with chronic gastritis associated with low secretory gastric function and ulcer disease. The proteolytic activity of gastric juice turned out to be different both in healthy persons and in patients with ulcer disease. In patients suffering from chronic gastritis associated with low secretory gastric function, proteolysis of protein-containing foods was reduced to a different degree in respect to a concrete food. Out of all foods investigated, egg yolk, beef liver and mintai were assimilated better whereas egg white and mutton to a worse degree. Addition of hydrochloric or citric acid raised the proteolytic activity of gastric juice.

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.