The gastric secretory response to insulin: an `all-or-none' phenomenon?

Abstract

Dogs were prepared with Pavlov pouches which could be perfused with saline so as to detect rapidly changes occurring in acid secretion. Dose-response studies were performed by the intravenous injection of insulin (0·06, 0·12, 0·25, 0·5, or 1·0 unit/kg). Both the magnitude of peak response and the duration of response were dose-related and both were related to the magnitude of fall in plasma glucose. These results are not consistent with an `all-or-none' hypothesis for insulin-stimulated gastric acid secretion, but favour the alternative hypothesis that insulin provides a graded glycopenic stimulus producing a graded secretory response.