RAT PANCREAS AFTER LONG-TERM TREATMENT WITH THE SOMATOSTATIN ANALOG OCTREOTIDE

Somatostatin is a potent inhibitor of endocrine and exocrine pancreati c secretion. However, it is not clear whether it also inhibits pancrea tic growth. Therefore we treated male Wistar rats with a somatostatin analogue, octreotide (12-192 mu g/(kg body wt.day)), over a period of 14 days. In a dose-dependent manner, this potent and long-acting analo gue caused a reduction in weight of the pancreas and a reduction in pa ncreatic content of protein, DNA, trypsin, chymotrypsin, amylase and l ipase, as well as pancreatic content of insulin-, glucagon- and somato statin-like immuno-reactivities. When growth of rat pancreas was induc ed by oral administration of camostate (200 mg/(kg body wt.day) or by subcutaneous administration of cholecystokinin (2 x 10 mu g/(kg body w t.day)) over a period of 14 days, octreotide (12-192 mu g/(kg body wt. day)) had the same effects, but these were even more pronounced. We co nclude that somatostatin is an important regulator of pancreatic growt h.