Urocortin 2 acts centrally to delay gastric emptying through sympathetic pathways while CRF and urocortin 1 inhibitory actions are vagal dependent in rats.

We characterized the influence of the selective corticotropin-releasing factor 2 (CRF2) receptor agonist human urocortin 2 (Ucn 2), injected intracisternally, on gastric emptying and its mechanism of action compared with intracisternal CRF or urocortin (Ucn 1) in conscious rats. The methylcellulose phenol red solution was gavaged 20 min after peptide injection, and gastric emptying was measured 20 min later. The intracisternal injection of Ucn 2 (0.1 and 1 μg) and Ucn 1 (1 μg) decreased gastric emptying to 37.8 ± 6.9%, 23.1 ± 8.6%, and 21.6 ± 5.9%, respectively, compared with 58.4 ± 3.8% after intracisternal vehicle. At lower doses, Ucn 2 (0.03 μg) and Ucn 1 (0.1 μg) had no effect. The CRF2 antagonist astressin2-B (3 μg ic) antagonized intracisternal Ucn 2 (0.1 μg) and CRF (0.3 μg)-induced inhibition of gastric emptying. Vagotomy enhanced intracisternal Ucn 2 (0.1 or 1 μg)-induced inhibition of gastric emptying compared with sham-operated group, whereas it blocked intracisternal CRF (1 μg) inhibitory acti...