Abstract

Organ culture was used to compare gastrin and somatostatin release from cultured antral mucosa obtained from duodenal ulcer and non-ulcer (control) subjects. In response to dibutyryl cyclic AMP (DBCAMP) cultured antral mucosal explants from patients with a history of duodenal ulcer released a greater proportion of antral gastrin into the medium than did antral mucosal explants from non-ulcer subjects. Somatostatin release from antral mucosa from duodenal ulcer patients was substantially less than somatostatin released by antral explants from non-ulcer subjects. In the non-ulcer subjects there was a direct positive correlation between the amounts of antral somatostatin and gastrin released into the culture medium (r = 0.64, less than p 0.01). In the duodenal ulcer patients, however, there was no correlation between gastrin release and somatostatin release from antral mucosa ( r = 0.09; p greater than 0.2). Results of these studies identify enhanced gastrin release in response to stimulation and decreased release of somatostatin from antral mucosa of duodenal ulcer patients. These alterations in paracrine relationships of antral somatostatin and gastrin in duodenal ulcer subjects may contribute, at least in part, to the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcer disease.