Effects of Eight-Hour Intravenous Infusions of ACTH and the Adrenocortical Steroids in Normal Man. I. Basal Gastric Secretion, and Plasma and Urinary Pepsinogen12

Abstract

In 49 experiments on 16 normal human subjects, the effects of 8-hour intravenous infusions of ACTH, corticosterone, hydrocortisone, aldosterone and prednisolone on gastric secretion and on plasma and urinary pepsinogen were compared with values found in the preceding 3-hour control period and with experiments in which the vehicle was infused without hormones. No changes in gastric acid or pepsin output or concentration could be attributed to the hormones infused, except for a doubling of the HC1 and pepsin concentrations during the single infusion of aldosterone. The viscosity of the gastric juice was significantly reduced by ACTH and by corticosterone, but not by hydrocortisone, suggesting one possible role for the corticosterone which is secreted by the human adrenal. ACTH invariably increased the output of urinary pepsinogen, due to increased renal clearance of pepsinogen, since plasma levels remained unaltered. These effects were reproduced by hydrocortisone alone. Since there was no correlation between gastric pepsin and urinary pepsinogen output to reflect changes in gastric secretion of pepsin after steroid administration is not valid.