Polyclonal antibodies for immunochemical determination of human pepsinogens.

The human gastric mucosa contains two main groups of aspartic proteinases, pepsin (EC 3.4.23.1) and gastricsin (EC 3.4.23.3), which differ by their structural, kinetic and immunological characteristics. The ratios between human aspartic proteases are important from the diagnostic point of view. Rabbit polyclonal antisera against human pepsinogen A and pepsinogen C (progastricsin) were obtained and tested for clinical purposes. Immunoblotting procedure seems to be a simple and sufficiently sensitive method for qualitative determination of pepsinogens in human gastric mucosa.