The comparative gastric acid and pepsin response to histamine, insulin hypoglycemia and feeding in dogs with vagally innervated gastric pouches.

The amounts of acid and of pepsin secreted by the stomach in response to a meal and to two dose levels of histamine and insulin have been compared in eight dogs with vagally-innervated pouches. The greatest acid output occurred after a ‘maximal’ dose of histamine, while the output after a meat meal usually exceeded that after either dose level of insulin. Feeding was better simulated, in the secretion it evoked, by 0·45 µg./kg./min. of histamine than by any other stimulus used. Large doses of histamine appeared to inhibit pepsin secretion in comparison with a submaximal dose. Both doses of insulin stimulated pepsin secretion to a greater degree than did feeding.