Thyrotropin-releasing hormone--CNS action to stimulate gastric acid secretion

Much physiological and pharmacological evidence has accumulated to suggest that the autonomic nervous system has an important role in the peripheral modulation of gastric secretion, although the neurochemical mediators in the brain which initiate or modulate autonomic input are poorly understood. Recently, the demonstration that some oligopeptides present in mammalian brain act in the central nervous system (CNS) to influence profoundly glucoregulation, thermoregulation, blood pressure, sympathetic outflow, muscular activity of gut and stress-induced gastric haemorrhagic lesions have led us to examine a possible role for some of these endogenous brain oligopeptides as chemical messengers involved in the CNS modulation of gastric secretion. We report here that thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) acts within the CNS to elicit a vagus-dependent stimulation of gastric acid secretion.