Endogenous prostaglandins and gastric secretion in the cat

1. The gastric juice outputs of acid, pepsin, PGE and PGF, and the plasma concentrations of PGE and PGF have been measured in response to I.V. infusions of pentagastrin, histamine and insulin in the conscious cat. 2. There were significant correlations between the output of gastric acid and gastric outputs of both PGE and PGF during secretion produced by all stimulants. Furthermore, there were similar significant correlations between the gastric outputs of pepsin and both PGE and PGF. However, during insulin stimulation there was significantly more pepsin output per unit PGE or PGF output than during either pentagastrin or histamine stimulation. 3. The correlations between the outputs of gastric acid and both PGE and PGF were similar during pentagastrin and insulin stimulation whereas those between acid and PGE and PGF altered during the infusion of histamine. 4. It is concluded that these data partially, but not entirely, support the hypothesis that local release of prostaglandins may act as a negative feed-back mechanism on gastric acid secretion. 5. Plasma prostaglandin concentration did not correlate with changes in acid or pepsin secretion.