‘Non-Active’ Pepsin Secretion Compared with Stimulated Secretion by Bethanechol, Histamine, Pentagastrin, and 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose

Abstract

The present studies were performed on a double-pouch dog with one vagally innervated Amdrup pouch (AP) and one denervated Heidenhain pouch (HP), allowing comparison of pepsin secretion from innervated and denervated mucosa at the same time in the same animal. ‘Non-active’ secretion of pepsin was determined by instillation in the pouches of 0.1 M and 0.005 M HCl, 0.15 M NaCl, and 0.03 M phosphate buffer, and well-known stimulators of gastric secretion such as histamine, pentagastrin, bethanechol, and 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) were tested as pepsigogues. Cholinergic stimulation by 2-DG and bethanechol (Urecholine®) was clearly the most potent stimulus of pepsin secretion. 2-DG elicited secretion only from innervated mucosa, whereas the responses to bethanechol were similar in the two pouches. Histamine and pentagastrin were weak stimulators, but both provoked active and sustained secretion of pepsin when given in small doses. Higher doses of histamine strongly inhibited pepsin output. The effects of histamine were independent of vagal innervation. By contrast, the active stimulation by pentagastrin only took place in innervated mucosa. The highest outputs were seen in the lowest doses, but also very high doses of pentagastrin elicited active pepsin secretion in the AP. Medium doses of pentagastrin brought the secretion down to the ‘non-active’ level. The chief cells in the denervated mucosa were quite insensible to pentagastrin, and the pepsin output in the HP equalled the ‘non-active’ response at all dose levels.