Plasma gastrin concentrations following sham feeding in duodenal ulcer patients.

Sham feeding experiments were performed in 20 duodenal ulcer (DU) patients by using adequate sham feeding and modified sham feeding (the 'chew-and-spit' technique). A 15-min sham feeding induced a marked secretion of gastric acid but only an insignificant increase in total gastrin or in gastrin17 concentrations in plasma. Nor did prolonged sham feeding (30 min) with intragastric neutralization significantly increase the gastrin concentrations. We conclude that sham feeding in DU patients induces a release of recognized gastrin components in amounts that are barely detectable radioimmunologically. Therefore, the acid secretory effects of vagally released gastrins in DU patients remains to be established.