The effect of insulin on food-stimulated secretion of gastrin after parietal cell vagotomy and selective gastric vagotomy.

Serum gastrin concentration was measured in 11 patients with Parietal Cell Vagotomy and Drainage (PCV + D) and in 11 patients with Selective Gastric Vagotomy and Drainage (SGV + D) in the basal state, after a meal, and after a meal in combination with insulin-hypoglycaemia. Insulin had an early and transitory, but significant, inhibitory effect on the food-induced rise in serum gastrin concentrations. This inhibition was the same whether the patients had a PCV + D or SGV + D, indicating that it has no relation to the vagal innervation of the antrum. In the second hour after the meal the integrated gastrin output was significantly higher when insulin was added to a meal in patients with PCV + D but not in patients with SGV + D. This may indicate a certain, possibility sensitizing, effect of the vagal antral nerves.