Pancreatic secretory response to sham feeding in humans

We studied the pancreatic secretory response to sham feeding alone or during secretin infusion with and without administration of atropine in 10 human subjects. The magnitude of the response to sham feeding was compared to the response to cholecystokinin octapeptide. Sham feeding alone did not significantly increase pancreatic bicarbonate or amylase secretion above basal values. During a background secretin infusion, there was a significant increase of bicarbonate and amylase output (p less than 0.05) during sham feeding. The amylase response was approximately 50% of the maximal response to cholecystokinin octapeptide. In the tests with atropine and secretin, sham feeding still caused a significant increment in amylase and bicarbonate output. We conclude that (1) the pancreatic response to sham feeding is not clearly demonstrated without a background of secretin; (2) during secretin infusion sham feeding is a potent stimulant of pancreatic enzyme secretion, and (3) atropine had no significant effect on the pancreatic response to sham feeding under the conditions of this study.