| [ Summary ] |
Studies on pepsin and its precursor pepsinogen, have the longest history of research among various enzymes, and include many pioneering studies. Thus, they have had a great deal of influence on other studies in related areas. This article briefly describes the history of studies on pepsin/pepsinogen under the following categories: I. discovery and naming, II. primary and three-dimensional structures, III. structure-function relationships, including identification of active site residues and catalytic mechanisms of pepsin and activation mechanism of pepsinogen, IV. gene structure and expression/regulation, and V. physiological and clinical/medical implications, with special attention to human gastric pepsin/pepsinogen A (or I) and pepsin/pepsinogen C (or II). |