Hormonal stimulation of intestinal brush border enzymes release

The rat small bowel was perfused in vivo and ex vivo in the absence of biliary and pancreatic secretion. Intraluminal release of sucrase, alkaline phosphatase, aminopeptidases and enterokinase was significantly increased after administration of pentagastrin, caerulein and glucagon at doses ranging between 1 pg and 10 microgram. This suggests that there is a direct hormonal stimulation of the intestinal mucosa. This effect might at least partly be mediated through cyclic AMP since dibutyryl derivates of this cyclic nucleotide exerted a significant stimulatory effect on intraluminal release of proteins, sucrase and enterokinase, although the pattern of enzyme was quite different from the effect produced by the three peptides.