gastrin

gastrin, any of a group of digestive hormones secreted by the wall of the pyloric end of the stomach (the area where the stomach joins the small intestine) of mammals. In humans, gastrin occurs in three forms: as a 14-, 17-, and 34-amino-acid polypeptide. These forms are produced from a series of enzymatic reactions that cleave the larger proteins into their smaller forms.

Gastrin is released into the bloodstream when food enters the stomach and is carried by the circulatory system to the gastric cells in the stomach wall, where it triggers the secretion of gastric juice. This juice consists primarily of hydrochloric acid, which helps break apart fibrous matter in food and kills bacteria that may have been ingested, and pepsinogen, which is a precursor of the protein-splitting enzyme pepsin. Gastrin also increases the motility of the stomach, thereby helping to churn food and eventually to empty the stomach; to a lesser degree, gastrin also increases the motility of the upper small intestine and the gallbladder.

The medical importance of gastrin lies in the fact that there are pancreatic islet-cell tumours called gastrinomas that secrete large quantities of gastrin (hypergastrinemia). Hypergastrinemia stimulates the production of gastric acid, which causes severe peptic ulcer disease and diarrhea. Gastrinomas are one component of the syndrome of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) and are also the defining tumour type of a rare disorder known as Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, which may occur sporadically or as a part of MEN1. Treatment consists of surgically removing the tumour or treating the patient with a drug that inhibits gastric acid secretion (a proton pump inhibitor).