EDITORIAL SYNOPSIS This is an exhaustive study of the basal and stimulated secretion of two normal subjects over a period of 20 months. The calculated maximal responses have been experimentally obtained by slow intravenous administration of massive doses of gastrin It. These studies have enabled many characteristics of gastric activity to be defined.The gastric secretory acid responses to 'maximal' stimulation by histamine or gastrin II administered subcutaneously have previously been studied in normal individuals and ulcer patients (Makhlouf, McManus, and Card, 1964a). The dose-response of a normal subject to a series of continuous infusions or to graded single intravenous injections of gastrin II have also been reported (Makhlouf, McManus, and Card, 1964b).The present paper is an extension of these studies. The secretory responses of two normal male subjects, G.M. and J.M., have now been examined over a period of 20 months. The experiments were designed to determine the pattern of secretory response in time to various gastric stimulants, singly or in combination; and the relationship of the responses of the two subjects. In a study of this kind, two important parameters against which all data are to be interpreted must first be established with sufficient accuracy, namely, a base line respresenting the spontaneous secretion, and the maximal response of the stomach which, it will be shown subsequently, is defined by the value of the asymptote of the doseresponse curve following stimulation by intravenous gastrin. The first section will deal with the way in which these parameters are established.
METHODSThe procedures have already been described in our previous communications. Three points, however, are worthy of re-emphasis.1 Salivary contamination was prevented by the insertion of dental cotton pledgets in the sulci of the cheeks.2 The juice was collected every five minutes and pooled into samples corresponding to 10-minute periods for purposes of titration, except in the case of single intravenous injections of gastrin, when five-minute samples were estimated directly.3 The 'pumping' effect of deep respiration is of major importance in the accurate collection of juice over short periods, and it was used throughout.In the early experiments, the spontaneous secretion was collected for one hour. As the subjects became conditioned to the procedure, it was found that a 20-minute collection, accurately recorded, provided a sufficient indication of the spontaneous secretion.All the tests, often repeated, were performed in a random manner over a period of 20 months. Fifty tests involving administration of gastrin IL by infusion or single intravenous injection were performed, and were equally distributed between the two subjects.The range of doses delivered by continuous infusion was 0-2 to 90 4g./hr. In the case of single intravenous injections of gastrin, the range was 0 5 to 100 /tg. total dose. In earlier experiments using this latter technique, insufficient attention had been paid to the standardization of the ti...