Patients with chronic renal failure have an abnormal immunoreactive gastrointestinal hormone profile, which is characterised by raised fasting serum concentrations of hormones that have antagonistic effects on exocrine pancreatic function. In addition, in this present study we have found that in renal insufficiency cholecystokinin disappears slowly from the plasma after a constant intravenous i...

Gastrin gene expression exhibits a complex pattern of tissue-specific expression during the neonatal development of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas. In the rat fetus, the pancreas is the major site of gastrin expression; very little gastrin is found in the antrum which is the major site of adult expression. Pancreatic gastrin mRNA is identical to the antral species having the same trans...

We have investigated the possibility that the abnormally decreased gall bladder contraction after meals in patients with coeliac disease might result in part from an abnormality in the gall bladder response to endogenous cholecystokinetic hormones--for example, cholecystokinin and motilin--rather than solely from decreased secretion of such hormones. Eight patients with untreated coeliac diseas...

Nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) and cyclic adenosine diphosphate ribose (cADPR) were first demonstrated to mobilize Ca2+ in sea urchin eggs. In the absence of direct measurements of these messengers, pharmacological studies alone have implicated these molecules as intracellular second messengers for specific cell surface receptor agonists. We now report that in mouse pancr...

CCK-58 differs from CCK-8 in patterns of expression of pancreatic secretion of fluid and amylase and gallbladder contraction. These differences have physiological relevance only if CCK-58 release is stimulated by nutrients entering the intestine and if CCK-58 circulates in sizeable amounts. In this study, we report that when radiolabeled CCK-58 is added to rat blood and plasma is formed, there ...

We used antisera that recognized precursors of the neuropeptide cholecystokinin extended at the carboxyl terminus in an immunocytochemical study of the macaque retina. A subpopulation of bipolar cells with long, obliquely oriented dendrites was labeled. Their axons terminated exclusively in the fifth stratum of the inner plexiform layer, where they contacted processes of amacrine and ganglion c...

Naloxone increases oxytocin secretion in pregnant rats, suggesting restraint by endogenous opioids but we have previously reported that oxytocin nerve terminals in the neural lobe become desensitized to opioid actions in late pregnancy. Therefore, we sought evidence for opioid inhibition on oxytocin cell bodies and their inputs at this time. In conscious 21 d pregnant rats naloxone increased th...

To determine the role of the adenylate cyclase system in potentiation of enzyme secretion, we used cholera toxin to activate adenylate cyclase before examining the effects of agents on chief cell cAMP and pepsinogen secretion. Dispersed chief cells were obtained from guinea pig stomach by fractionation of mucosal cells on a Percoll gradient. Incubation of cells with 100 nM cholera toxin for 90 ...

BACKGROUND Gut peptides are known to influence hormone release and growth of endocrine tumours of the pancreas. Although information on somatostatin receptors has been provided recently, little is known on the receptor status of other gastrointestinal hormones in such tumours. AIMS To analyse the spectrum of gut hormone receptors on endocrine tumours of pancreas. SUBJECTS Four types of endo...