We studied the effect of several doses of atropine on the serum gastrin and pancreatic polypeptide responses to vagal stimulation in healthy human subjects. Vagal stimulation was induced by sham feeding. To eliminate the effect of gastric acidity on gastrin release, gastric pH was held constant (pH 5) and acid secretion was measured by intragastric titration. Although a small dose of atropine (...

This section, entitled "Pancreatic Pathology," includes a spectrum of topics on normal and abnormal pancreatic tissue. Specifically, two presentations deal with characterization of cholecystokinin (CCK) receptors on normal tissues. Wank has recently reported the purification, cloning, and expression of the CCKA receptor from rat pancreas, and the article by Miller deals with the biochemical cha...

The role of the peptide hormone gastrin in stimulating gastric acid secretion is well established. Mature amidated gastrin is processed from larger peptide precursor forms. Increasingly these processing intermediates, such as glycine-extended gastrin (G-Gly) and progastrin, have been shown to have biological activities of their own, often separate and complementary to gastrin. Although G-Gly is...

The peptide hormone gastrin is known to play a role in differentiation, growth and apoptosis of cells in the gastric mucosa. In this study we demonstrate that gastrin induces Nuclear Receptor 4A2 (NR4A2) expression in the adenocarcinoma cell lines AR42J and AGS-GR, which both possess the gastrin/CCK2 receptor. In vivo, NR4A2 is strongly expressed in the gastrin responsive neuroendocrine ECL cel...

The effect of circulatory transit of the gastric fundus on serum levels of endogenous gastrin measured directly by radioimmunoassay has been studied in 14 dogs. Gastrin was measured in samples obtained simultaneously from the arterial inflow and venous outflow of the gastric fundus. During basal conditions, transit of the gastric fundus resulted in no change in gastrin concentration. During per...

The effect of an intravenous injection of secretin on plasma gastrin concentration is shown to be dependent upon the relative concentration of the major forms of immunoreactive gastrin present in the plasma at the time of injection. Secretin suppressed gastrin secretion in the fasting state in patients in whose plasma heptadecapeptide and big gastrins predominated and did not suppress when big ...

Proforms of gastrointestinal peptides are cleaved at paired basic residues into intermediate forms. Paired basic residues at the C-terminal then are excised by carboxypeptidases before the peptide is amidated. An obese mouse, called Cpe(fat)/Cpe(fat), has a missense mutation in carboxypeptidase E (CPE) with no pancreatic CPE activity and a reduced processing of pancreatic proinsulin to insulin....

Basal circulating levels of gastrin, somatostatin, and pancreatic polypeptide were measured in 30 chronic haemodialysis patients. Five patients had considerably raised serum gastrin (greater than 400 pmol/1) and also gastric achlorhydria while 75% of the patients who had normal (less than 55 pmol/1) or moderately increased (less than 400 pmol/1) serum gastrin had raised maximal acid outputs. Pa...

Sera from 15 patients with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome were subjected to gel filtration on Sephadex G-50 superfine columns (10 x 2000 mm). The concentration of gastrin in the effluent was determined by a sensitive radioimmunoassay. Immunoreactive gastrin was eluted in four components in 14 sera. (1) Component I, eluted in the same position as proinsulin, constituted 9.7 +/- 1.2 (mean +/- SEM...