THE COMPOSITION OF GASTRIC JUICE AS A FUNCTION OF THE RATE OF SECRETION

Abstract

183 samples of gastric juice secreted by dogs with pouches of the entire stomach (vagotomized) in response to repeated histamine injs. were analyzed chemically and the results subjected to a statistical analysis. The outputs of HCl, Cl, BCl, K, Na, and Ca by the gastric glands increased with the rate of secretion in linear fashion, but at different rates. The concs. in gastric juice of BC1, Na, and Ca decreased, and the concs. of Cl, HC1, and the osmotic pressure increased with the rate of secretion in hyperbolic fashion, but at different rates. The conc. of K remains uniquely constant in gastric juice. The parietal cell secretion consisted of 166 m.eq./l. of Cl, 7.4 of K, 158.6 of H+, and the non-parietal secretions consisted of 133.3 m.eq./l. of Cl, 33.0 of HC03, 154.5 of Na, 7.4 of K, and 3.7 of Ca. The composition of gastric juice varied only between the limits set by its 2 main components, the parietal and the non-parietal. Since the non-parietal component was secreted at a very slow and practically constant rate, whereas the parietal component was secreted at rates which vary widely with the dosage of histamine, the composition of gastric juice evidently was a function of its rate of secretion.