Action of secretagogues on amylase release from dog pancreatic acini

This work describes a new preparation of dog pancreatic acini which were used to study amylase release in response to various secretagogues. Neither secretin nor vasoactive intestinal peptide stimulated amylase release from acini. Caerulein, carbachol and human synthetic gastrin G17 stimulated amylase release with the same efficacy, but with different potencies. Bombesin nonapeptide did not show any evidence of a direct stimulatory effect on amylase release. These species-related peculiarities stress the necessity of using the same species when comparing pancreatic cell behaviour in vivo and in vitro.