Effect of insulin on secretion of bombesin-like immunoreactivity and gastrin from the isolated rat stomach in response to acetylcholine, VIP and leucine-enkephalin.

Bombesin-like immunoreactivity (BLI), a putative peptidergic neurotransmitter of the gastrointestinal intrinsic nervous system is released from the isolated perfused rat stomach in response to the classical neurotransmitter acetylcholine and in response to other putative peptidergic neurotransmitters such as vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), peptide histidine isoleucine (PHI) or growth hormone releasing factor (GRF). The secretion of BLI is modulated not only by gastric factors such as the intragastric pH but also by changes of perfusate glucose concentrations indicating that alterations of carbohydrate metabolism might have an effect on gastric neuroendocrine regulation. Since previous studies have shown that insulin, the major regulatory hormone of glucose metabolism, reduces gastric somatostatin and glucagon secretion it was of interest to determine the effect of insulin on gastric BLI and gastrin secretion. The experiments were performed in the isolated perfused rat stomach model. The addition of porcine insulin to the perfusate at concentrations of 50 and 100 microU/ml had no effect on basal BLI and gastrin secretion. The infusion of acetylcholine (2 X 10(-6)M and 4 X 10(-6)M) elicited a stimulation of BLI and gastrin secretion which was not altered by the addition of insulin (100 microU/ml). On the other hand, significant effects of insulin were observed during administration of the two putative peptidergic neurotransmitters VIP and leu-enkephalin. The infusion of VIP at 10(-11)M and 10(-8)M had no effect on BLI and gastrin secretion in the absence of insulin, however, with the addition of insulin (100 microU/ml) the higher dose of VIP (10(-8)M) elicited a significant stimulation of BLI secretion while both doses of VIP (10(-11)M and 10(-8)M) significantly increased gastrin release. Similar to VIP the infusion of leu-enkephalin at doses of 10(-9)M and 10(-6)M had no effect on BLI and gastrin secretion in the absence of insulin. When insulin was added to the perfusate both doses of leu-enkephalin elicited a significant stimulation of BLI secretion while gastrin remained unchanged. The addition of the specific opiate receptor antagonist naloxone (10(-5)M) did not block the effect of leu-enkephalin in the presence of insulin. In addition the effect of naloxone was also examined during cholinergic stimulation. The addition of naloxone (10(-5)M) during the infusion of acetylcholine abolished the stimulatory effect on BLI secretion in the absence of insulin, whereas in the presence of insulin naloxone did not alter cholinergically-induced BLI secretion.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)