Rats with hypercalcemia induced by injection of vitamin D2 had a decreased thyroid somatostatin content, whereas the somatostatin content in their pancreas was almost within the normal range. This suggests that somatostatin in different organs acts specifically on each particular organ as a local hormone or hormone-like substance.

Somatostatin has been implicated in various cognitive and emotional functions, but its precise role is still poorly understood. Here, we have made use of mice with somatostatin deficiency, based upon genetic invalidation or pharmacologically induced depletion, and Pavlovian fear conditioning in order to address the contribution of the somatostatin system to associative fear memory. The results ...

The role of GTP on somatostatin-induced K+ current increase was examined in dissociated human pituitary tumor cells obtained from three acromegalic patients. Pituitary cells in culture were voltage-clamped by using the patch clamp technique in the whole-cell configuration. Somatostatin (100 nM) increased the membrane permeability to K+ ions and inhibited hormone secretion. A current-voltage rel...

Somatostatin secreted by pancreatic δ cells mediates important paracrine interactions in Langerhans islets, including maintenance of glucose metabolism through the control of reciprocal insulin and glucagon secretion. Disruption of this circuit contributes to the development of diabetes. However, the precise mechanisms that control somatostatin secretion from islets remain elusive. Here, we fou...

The effects of somatostatin on oral glucose tolerance and on intestinal absorption of glucose and other nutrients have been studied in anaesthetised rats. Intravenous somatostatin (0.1-0.6 nmol/min) increased the rate of gastric emptying. After intraduodenal administration of glucose, the rise in peripheral plasma levels of the sugar was delayed, but finally exaggerated by somatostatin, which i...

Sir, We have reported previously on the increase in the number of somatostatin-immunoreactive cells with dendritic morphology in psoriatic skin (1, 2). The number of Merkel cells is increased in the psoriatic epidermis and, in contrast to the situation in normal skin, a subgroup of Merkel cells expresses somatostatin (3). This prompted the question as to whether the somatostatin-positive cells ...

The glucagon-suppressing activity of insulin and somatostatin were compared at high and low glucose concentrations. In normal dogs made hyperglucagonemic by phloridzin pretreatment, insulin and somatostatin suppressed glucagon at rates of 47 +/- 8 and 35 +/- 8%/h (NS), respectively, despite profound hypoglycemia. In severely hyperglycemic alloxan-diabetic dogs, insulin and somatostatin suppress...

RW cells are pancreatic endocrine RIN cells that have been stably transfected with a chimeric gene that places the expression of the dominant selection gpt gene under the control of the insulin gene regulatory sequences. These RW cells were examined for hormone content using immunocytochemistry. This analysis shows that: first, there are cells that are negative for insulin although they were cu...

The three widely distributed peptides derived from prosomatostatin are the original neurohormone somatostatin-14, somatostatin-28, and somatostatin-28(1-12), which are all derived from the COOH terminus of the precursor. Recently a decapeptide derived from the NH2 terminus of the prohormone has been identified in extracts of rat gastric antrum and named antrin. Data now show that in both rats a...