Plasma levels of somatostatin and gastrin in sick infants and small for gestational age infants.

Sick neonates often have a disturbed gastrointestinal motility. As somatostatin inhibits various gastrointestinal functions, we investigated whether or not somatostatin levels are high in sick infants. Somatostatin and gastrin levels were measured in plasma samples collected from sick and healthy neonates. Somatostatin levels were found to be significantly elevated in sick infants when compared to healthy ones, both term (91 versus 5 pM) and preterm (35 versus 5 pM). We suggest that the gastrointestinal symptoms seen in infants during illness may be related to an enhanced secretion of gastric somatostatin.