Insulin Depression of Human Gastric Secretion

IN 1953, Olson and Necheles¹ reported that insulin injected intravenously into patients caused a significant depression of basal gastic secretion for a 30-minute period. That year Karvinen and Karvinen² reported that insulin reduced the gastric secretory volume of dogs with vagally denervated (Heidenhain) pouches continuously stimulated with histamine. In 1954, Forrest and Code³ noted that the inhibition of histamine-induced gastric secretion by insulin in dogs was not dependent on the vagal or the sympathetic nerve supply to the stomach. Geziri and co-workers,⁴ in 1958, observed the total thoracolumbar sympathectomy, bilateral adrenalectomy, or both, in dogs, did not alter the period of inhibition of gastric secretion that followed insulin injection. They concluded that this inhibitory effect of insulin on gastric secretion probably did not result from the release of norepinephrine or epinephrine. In 1963, Eisenberg and co-workers⁵ studied dogs with Heidenhain pouches and antrectomized Heidenhain pouches.