Clinical and Experimental Studies on Serum Gastrin Level and Metabolism in Various Disorders of Liver, Biliary Tract and Kidney

Abstract

In order to investigate the inactivation of endogenous gastrin by liver and kidney, thefollowing gastrin levels were measured by radioimmunoassay, first serum gastrin level inpatients with hepatic, biliary tract and renal diseases, second that of dogs with hepatic injuryand with nephrectomy, and third synthetic human gastrin and BZC-tetrapeptide duringincubation with slices of liver and kidney of the rat.
The following results were obtained.
1) Fasting serum gastrin levels of patients with acute hepatitis and renal diseases weresignificantlly higher than that of normal and that of nephrectomized dogs was significantllyhigher than that of normal.
2) Fifteen minutes after administration of 1M 50ml glycine solution, a rise of serumgastrin level of nephrectomized dogs was significantlly higher than that of normal.
3) Synthetic human gastrin level after incubation with slices of injured liver and kidneywas significantlly less decreased than with those of normal liver and kidney. BZC-tetrapeptideafter incubation with those of injured liver was significantlly less decreased than with normalliver, while that after incubation with those of injured kidney was not significantlly less decreasedthan with normal kidney.
From these results, endogenous gastrin might be inactivated by kidney much more thanby liver.