Enkephalinergic control of somatostatin secretion from the perfused rat stomach

C. H. S. McIntosh, Yin Nam Kwok, T. Mordhorst, Erica Nishimura, Raymond A. Pederson, John C. Brown

Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology · 1983 · 29 citations · 0 references

Concepts

Abstract

A role for the enkephalins in the regulation of gastric somatostatin (SLI) secretion has been investigated in an isolated perfused rat stomach model. Both methionine- and leucine-enkephalins caused a dose-dependent inhibition of gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) stimulated SLI secretion. Leu-enkephalin was one order of magnitude less potent than met-enkephalin: 50% inhibition by met-enkephalin was at 4 X 10(-9) M and with leu-enkephalin 3.5 X 10(-8) M. Naloxone (100 nM) had no effect on basal secretion but blocked the inhibitory action of met-enkephalin (1 nM or 1 microM). Vagal stimulation (7 V, 10 Hz, 5 ms) inhibited GIP-stimulated SLI release. Administration of naloxone partially reversed this inhibition, suggesting that endogenous opioids were at least partially responsible for vagally induced inhibition. A number of possible pathways by which endogenous enkephalins may modulate SLI release have been proposed.