Inhibitory effect of prolonged administration of long-acting somatostatin on gastrin-stimulated fundic epithelial cell growth in the rat.

The effects of a 3-week administration of long-acting somatostatin were explored (a) in young rats under both normal and long-acting gastrin stimulation and (b) in adult rats with transposition of the antrum onto the colon and, therefore, chronically stimulated with endogenous gastrin. Histomorphometric parameters of the fundic mucosa were estimated at the end of the treatment. In young rats, somatostatin alone (390 micrograms/kg/day) only lowered parietal and peptic cell densities per cubic millimeter compared to controls. That it exerted an antitropic effect under physiological conditions remains questionable. However, in cases of chronic hypergastrinemia, the same dose of somatostatin obviously antagonized the growth-promoting effect of exogenous or endogenous gastrin.