Hydrogen is available from water, but from where does the chlorine come from?
In: Biology
From salt. NaCl will be dissociated into sodium and chlorine ions; it already is the moment it’s dissolved in water. Your cells will pick up sodium ions for some purposes and chlorine for another.
Here is a post about how stomach acid is produced, I commented on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/hmp6yh/comment/fx6jno0
As to where the cells get the chloride from, well we have a lot of chloride around. It’s actually a very useful ion, it’s more concentrated outside cells in most tissues, and it comes from your diet. Main source is salt, which is sodium chloride, but also some vegetables contain potassium chloride.
Parietal cells secrete the hydrochloric acid
A key substrate in the production of gastric acid is CO2, and diffusion of CO2 through the basal surface of the parietal appears to be the rate limiting step in acid synthesis. ( http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/stomach/parietal.html)
Pepsin is a stomach enzyme that serves to digest proteins found in ingested food. Gastric chief cells secrete pepsin as an inactive zymogen called pepsinogen. Parietal cells within the stomach lining secrete hydrochloric acid that lowers the pH of the stomach. A low pH (1.5 to 2) activates pepsin.
The common meds for excess stomach acid are classed as Proton Pump Inhibitors.
Positive Hydrogen ions are essentially a proton.
So those meds work by stopping the production of Positive Hydrogen ions so there are less to bond with Cl to make Hydrochloric acid thus reducing stomach acid
Latest Answers