SOMATOSTATIN CONTENT AND BINDING IN SMALL INTESTINAL MUCOSA FROM FED, FASTED, AND REFED RABBITS

Abstract The present study is an investigation of the effects of 12- to 96-hours′ starvation and 96-hours′ starvation plus 48-hours′ refeeding on both somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLI) and cytosolic somatostatin binding sites in rabbit small intestinal mucosa. The SLI concentration increased after 24 h in duodenal and jejunal mucosa, but not in ileal mucosa, and reached its highest value after 96 h of fasting. The number of specific high and low- affinity somatostatin binding sites, but not their affinity, decreased with the duration of fasting in the same gut segments, refeeding of fasted animals resulted in a return to normal control values for small intestine mucosal SLI and somatostatin binding.