Evidence for the presence of somatostatin 28 in plasma.

Somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLI) from dog and rat plasma eluted from Biogel P-6 columns as three distinct peaks. A large-molecular-weight peak was present in the void volume of the column, an intermediate-sized peak (SLI28) coeluted with synthetic somatostatin 28 (S-28), and a small-molecular-weight peak (SLI14) coeluted with SRIF. Material from the SLI28 peak diluted in parallel to the S-28 standard in the radioimmunoassay and behaved identically to S-28 on high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). Levels of SLI28 in the portal vein were consistently greater than the simultaneously measured peripheral levels (portal peripheral ratio 2.2 +/- 0.2). Venous samples drawn from multiple sites suggested that SLI28 is segregated by the duodenum and/or pancreas and the intestine. This data is consistent with the possibility that S-28 is a hormone distinct from SRIF.