Radio‐immunoassay of gastrin in human plasma

Abstract

SUMMARY1. A radio-immunoassay for gastrin has been developed using partially purified porcine gastrin to raise antibodies and highly purified natural porcine gastrin I for radio-iodination with 1251. The separation of antibodybound from free hormone was performed by a double-antibody method.2. In this assay highly purified natural porcine gastrin I, synthetic human gastrin I, radio-iodinated porcine gastrin I, gastrin in the plasma of a healthy volunteer, a patient with pernicious anaemia and another patientwith the Zollinger-Ellison syndromewereimmunologicallyidentical.3. The fasting plasma gastrin concentration of fourteen gastric ulcer patients was significantly higher than that of the 113 hospital controls with no history of gastro-intestinal disease, while twenty-seven duodenal ulcer patients had gastrin levels within the normal range.4. Plasma gastrin concentration was significantly elevated in pernicious anaemia (fifty-one patients), achlorhydria (thirty-three patients), hypochlorhydria (eleven patients) and in nine patients with histologically proven Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. 5. In human volunteers a protein meal stimulated endogenous gastrin release while a carbohydrate meal did not. Atropine sulphate I.M., and hydrochloric acid orally, produced a significant fall in the level of circulating gastrin.

Plasma gastrin and pancreatic polypeptide response to atropine and sham feeding in man.

“…In the present study, no significant change of plasma gastrin concentration was found in healthy volunteers in response to atropine, and this was in agreement with previous results reported by others (Korman et al 1971;Schrumpf and Myren 1974). In contrast to this, Feldman et al (1979) reported a small dose of atropine (0.78 and 2.3 pg/ kg) led to graded and significant rises in basal gastrin level, while Ganguli and Hunter (1972) and Becker et al (1974) reported an opposite result.…”

The Relationship Between Food, Gastro-Intestinal Hormones and Calcitonin Secretion

“…Plasma gastrin concentration was measured by a radioimmunoassay capable of measuring 20-30 pg gastrin/ml plasma with a mean coefficient of variation of ± 6-3 %, as described by Ganguli & Hunter (1972). All plasma samples were assayed in duplicate at dilutions of 1:10, 1:5 and 1:2-5.…”

Studies with Two Gastrin Antisera of Different Specificity for Gastrins I and II

“…15 patients with benign gastric ulcer on endoscopy and biopsy, 12 patients with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (either proven at laparotomy (6), autopsy (2). or who had hyper acidity, peptic ulceration and hyper-gastrinaemia (4), 6 patients with pernicious anaemia.…”

“…The exceptions are some patients who had a complete truncal vagotomy whose serum gastrin in response to insulin hypoglycaemia was unchanged with AS 4, but showed a small rise with AS 35. These studies perhaps offer one explanation for the variations in serum gastrin levels obtained in different laboratories and may theoretically suggest that the form in which gastrin is secreted in duodenal ulcer disease may be as sulphated gastrin II rather than as non-sulphated gastrin I. Antibodies raised against gastrin II may shed more light on this hypothesis.Studies employing radioimmunoassay have provided data on circulating gastrin in health and disease, and although there has been general agreement about these levels, some differences have become apparent [1,2,10,17,18], Since G regory and T racy [3] extracted two kinds of gastrin molecules from porcine and human antra which they designated gastrin I (non- …”