Regulation of gastric acid secretion by gastrin in duodenal ulcer patients and healthy subjects.

To examine the role of gastrin as a major mediator of meal-stimulated acid secretion at low and high intragastric pH, gastric acid secretory responses after exogenous and endogenous stimulation were studied in relation to circulating plasma gastrin levels in 19 healthy control subjects and in 18 patients with inactive duodenal ulcer disease. Gastrin was given intravenously in stepwise fourfold-increasing doses from 3.1 to 800 pmol.kg-1.h-1 over consecutive 30-minute periods. Circulating plasma gastrin and acid secretion rates, measured by intragastric titration, were compared with the values obtained during endogenous stimulation by intragastric meals of 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 g% peptone at either pH 5.5 or pH 2.5. The studies showed that circulating gastrin is a major regulator of acid secretion in the presence of peptone in both healthy controls and subjects with duodenal ulcers. Patients with duodenal ulcers had higher acid secretion rates in response to endogenous and exogenous stimulation. In duodenal ulcer subjects and healthy controls, acid secretion in response to higher doses (2-8 g%) of peptone was inhibited at low intragastric pH. This pH inhibition could be fully explained by diminished gastrin release. Patients in the DU group differed from the controls by diminished inhibition of acid secretion at intragastric pH 2.5 when low doses (1 g%) of peptone meals were used. In summary, gastrin is a major regulator of endogenously stimulated acid secretion at high and low intragastric pH in healthy subjects. DU patients differ from healthy controls by higher total acid secretion rates and diminished inhibition of acid secretion when low concentrations of peptone are present in the stomach.