Intestinal somatostatin function.

Somatostatin is present throughout the intestine, both in D cells at the luminal surface and in neural elements. It inhibits the release or action of many gut hormones known to regulate gastro-intestinal function and undoubtedly has a wide range of actions. In the intestine, available information indicates that somatostatin may have an important regulatory role for water and electrolyte absorption and secretion. The peptide affects both the epithelial transport function and the intestinal motility function. The outcome associated with administration of somatostatin is inhibition of water and electrolyte secretion. Somatostatin has been shown to effectively reduce stool output in diarrheal syndromes associated with endocrine tumor and other conditions. Clinical application of somatostatin in diarrhea still awaits development of an orally active and/or gut-specific analog. Some preliminary results indicate that this may be possible in the future.