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Neuro-endocrine influences on human gastric secretion

I. Gastric acid and plasma cortisol responses to induced hypoglycemia

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether endogenous release of plasma cortisol during or after induced hypoglycemia would have any appreciable influence on the concomitant gastric acid response over a 4-hr period. No such influence was demonstrated. A significant difference in plasma cortisol response was observed between insulin and tolbutamide, the latter evoking a much smaller and less frequent cortisol response. This study does not support the thesis that a delayed gastric acid response following hypoglycemia is due to an adreno-cortisol influence. The overall implication is that a short-acting stress would not facilitate peptic ulcer formation through a pituitary-adreno-cortical mechanism on gastric acid secretion. However, these findings do not exclude more remote influences of adreno-cortical hormones upon parietal cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gastroenterology Section. V. A. Hospital, 5901 E. 7 St, 90801, Long Beach, Calif

    Stephen J. Stempien MD

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  1. Stephen J. Stempien MD
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Additional information

Supported in part by a grant from the Ciba Pharmaceutical Company.

The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Miss Sylvia McCable. Mr. Joseph Cottingham, Mrs. Elizabeth Baum, Mrs. Lorraine Eiynck, and Mrs. Nina Lee.

We are indebted to Dr. Benjamin Horwitt and to Bio-Science Laboratories, Van Nuys, Calif, for their assistance in plasma cortisol determinations.

Statistical evaluations were made by Donald C. Butler, PhD, Statistician, Western Research Support Center, Sepulveda, Calif.

Tolbutamide (Orinase Diagnostic) was generously supplied by the Upjohn Company.

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Stempien, S.J. Neuro-endocrine influences on human gastric secretion. Digest Dis Sci 14, 875–886 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02233209

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