Insulin inhibits somatostatin-like immunoreactivity release stimulated by intragastric HCl

To determine the effect of an increase in insulin levels within the range occurring under physiologic conditions on the protein- and acid-induced release of splanchnic somatostatin, insulin was infused in dogs for 1 h following the intragastric instillation of a neutral protein load (20% liver extract at pH 7), a weak stimulus of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLI), and after an intragastric HCl, a strong stimulus of SLI release, instilled 30 min later. Insulin levels between 50 and 60 microunits/ml significantly reduced the rise in peripheral venous SLI levels elicited by the acid load from a mean integrated incremental value of 1705 +/- 182 pg/ml in controls to 840 +/- 312 in the insulin-infused group (P less than 0.05). Prevention of the insulin-induced hypoglycemia and the secondary rise in glucagon, a known stimulus of pancreatic somatostatin secretion, by means of a concomitant infusion of glucose, did not modify the reduction in acid-induced increase in plasma SLI concentration associated with hyperinsulinemia. Insulin-glucose infusion significantly lowered the SLI in the pancreaticoduodenal vein, and in the gastroepiploic vein draining the antrum (P less than 0.02; P less than 0.05), but not in the short gastric veins draining the fundus of the stomach in response to the acid load. It is concluded that physiologic elevation of insulin levels causes significantly reduced response of SLI to an intragastric acid load in dogs. This reduction is explained by a diminished increment of SLI in the venous effluent of the pancreas and the antrum.