M. E. Hanke, P. Donovan
Mar 1, 1927
Citations
0
Influential Citations
3
Citations
Journal
Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine
Abstract
Among the current theories for the chemistry of the gastric hydrochloric acid mechanism, there are none which allow for the production of the acid without a coincident local formation of an equivalent amount of alkali. Since there is no evidence that gastric tissue becomes alkaline during acid secretion, and since it would require an enormous concentration of chemical energy to separate HCl from an alkaline component, it seemed reasonable to develop a theory of gastric acidity production which would not labor under this assumption of local alkali formation. A chemical reaction which seems particularly probable in this connection is the hydrolysis of an alkyl halide, with the production of hydrochloric acid and the corresponding alkyl alcohol. RCl+HOH→HCl+ROH. The theory we have formulated involves (1) the mobilization of an organic chloride ester in gastric tissue at the time of gastric activity, and (2) the hydrolysis of this chloride ester, possibly under the influence of a specific enzyme activity. The alcohol thus formed may be reabsorbed at once or it may remain in the gastric juice, to be absorbed later in the intestine. The organic chloride is thought to be synthesized at the time of gastric activity, possibly in gastric tissue, as it is needed, from sodium chloride and the alcohol, with the simultaneous production of alkali—NaCl+ROH→RCl+NaOH—thus accounting for the alkaline tide accompanying gastric secretion. To avoid an apparent contradiction, let it be explained that the alkali production accompanying the synthesis of the ester, though simultaneous with the acidity production, is in no sense coincident with it. The two reactions probably take place at two remote places, and certainly do not occur in the same place. The feature of this theory is that it permits of the formation of any concentration and amount of hydrochloric acid from neutral reactants and with a neutral product.