what does gastric juice help to convert

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The gastric mucosa secretes 1.2 to 1.5 litres of gastric juice per day. Gastric juice renders food particles soluble, initiates digestion (particularly of proteins), and converts the gastric contents to a semiliquid mass called chyme, thus preparing it for further digestion in the small intestine. Gastric juice is a variable mixture of water, hydrochloric acid, electrolytes (sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphate, sulfate, and bicarbonate), and organic substances (mucus, pepsins, and protein). This juice is highly acidic because of its hydrochloric acid content, and it is rich in enzymes. As noted above, the stomach walls are protected from digestive juices by the membrane on the surface of the epithelial cells bordering the lumen of the stomach; this membrane is rich in lipoproteins, which are resistant to attack by acid. The gastric juice of some mammals (e.g., calves) contains the enzyme rennin, which clumps milk proteins and thus takes them out of solution and makes them more susceptible to the action of a proteolytic enzyme.
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