[Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours. What do we know of their history?]. / Tumores neuroendocrinos pancreáticos. ¿Qué conocemos de su historia?

Starting with Paul Langerhans, who first described pancreatic islets in 1869, this article reviews the various protagonists who, in the last century and a half, have contributed to the discovery of the main hormones originating in the pancreas, the analytical methods for their measurement, the imaging techniques for identifying tumoural location, and the various pancreatic neoplasms.

A novel pathway of insulin sensitivity in chromogranin A null mice: a crucial role for pancreastatin in glucose homeostasis.

Chromogranin A (CHGA/Chga), a proprotein, widely distributed in endocrine and neuroendocrine tissues (not expressed in muscle, liver, and adipose tissues), generates at least four bioactive peptides. One of those peptides, pancreastatin (PST), has been reported to interfere with insulin action. We generated a Chga knock-out (KO) mouse by the targeted deletion of the Chga gene in neuroendocrine tissues. KO mice displayed hypertension, higher plasma catecholamine, and adipokine levels and lower IL-6 and lipid levels compared with wild type mice. Liver glycogen content was elevated, but the nitric oxide (NO) level was diminished. Glucose, insulin, and pyruvate tolerance tests and hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp studies established increased insulin sensitivity in liver but decreased glucose disposal in muscle. Despite higher catecholamine and ketone body levels and muscle insulin resistance, KO mice maintained euglycemia due to increased liver insulin sensitivity. Suppressed mRNA abundance of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) in KO mice further support this conclusion. PST administration in KO mice stimulated phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and G6Pase mRNA abundance and raised the blood glucose level. In liver cells transfected with G6Pase promoter, PST caused transcriptional activation in a protein kinase C (PKC)- and NO synthase-dependent manner. Thus, PST action may be mediated by suppressing IRS1/2-phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-Akt-FOXO-1 signaling and insulin-induced maturation of SREBP1c by PKC and a high level of NO. The combined effects of conventional PKC and endothelial NO synthase activation by PST can suppress insulin signaling. The rise in blood PST level with age and in diabetes suggests that PST is a negative regulator of insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis.

[Actual problems of biology of pancreatic acino-insular cells].

Acino-insular cells are a distinct type of pancreatic cells sharing structural and functional features of both acinar and islet cells. They synthesize and secrete digestive enzymes and hormones. Novel concepts of the functional role of acino-insular cells and prospects for their further investigation are reviewed.

Roles of thyroid, adrenal and pancreatic hormones on thyroid activity of the soft-shelled turtles Lissemys punctata punctata Bonnoterre.

The effects of some exogenous peripheral hormones (thyroxine, corticosterone, epinephrine, norepinephrine and insulin) on thyroid activity were investigated in juvenile female soft-shelled turtles, Lissemys punctata punctata. Each hormone was injected in three different doses (25 microg, 50 microg or 100 microg each per 100 g body weight, once daily at 9 AM) for 10 consecutive days. Thyroid activity was evaluated by gravimetry, histology (epithelial height) and thyroperoxidase assay. The findings revealed that thyroxine in low dose (25 microg) stimulated thyroid activity by increasing the relative thyroid weight, epithelial height and thyroperoxidase activity, but inhibited gland activity at a high dose (100 microg) by decreasing the values of all these parameters. The medium dose (50 microg) had no significant effect. All other hormones, in all doses, significantly decreased thyroid activity by decreasing the values of all the parameters. Thyroid responses to exogenous hormones are generally dose-dependent in turtles. The mechanisms of actions of the hormones administered are suggested.

[Pancreatic hormones and hormonal regulation of insulin secretion]. / Pankreatické hormony a hormonální regulace sekrece inzulínu.

Endocrine pancreas producing insulin, glucagon, somatostatin and pancreatic polypeptide is under the influence of different types of regulation; among them the regulatory role of enteropancreatic axis plays an important role. Incretin effect of glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) is significantly involved in the insulin secretion which is modulated by many other hormones. Diabetes mellitus, similarly to disturbances of other hormones, can cause impaired regulation of insulin and other pancreatic hormones.

eNOS, nNOS, cGMP and protein kinase G mediate the inhibitory effect of pancreastatin, a chromogranin A-derived peptide, on growth and proliferation of hepatoma cells.

Pancreastatin (PST), a chromogranin A-derived peptide, has an anti-insulin metabolic effect and inhibits growth and proliferation by producing nitric oxide (NO) in HTC rat hepatoma cells. When NO production is blocked, a proliferative effect prevails due to the activation a Galphaq/11-phospholipase C-beta (PLC-beta) pathway, which leads to an increase in [Ca2+]i, protein kinase C (PKC) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation. The aim of the present study was to investigate the NO synthase (NOS) isoform that mediates these effects of PST on HTC hepatoma cells and the possible roles of cyclic GMP (cGMP) and cGMP-dependent protein kinase. DNA and protein synthesis in response to PST were measured as [3H]-thymidine and [3H]-leucine incorporation in the presence of various pharmacological inhibitors: N-monomethyl-L-arginine (NMLA, nonspecific NOS inhibitor), L-NIO (endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) inhibitor), espermidine (neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) inhibitor), LY83583 (guanylyl cyclase inhibitor), and KT5823 (protein kinase G inhibitor, (PKG)). L-NIO, similarly to NMLA, reverted the inhibitory effect of PST on hepatoma cell into a stimulatory effect on growth and proliferation. Nevertheless, espermidine also prevented the inhibitory effect of PST, but there was no stimulation of growth and proliferation. When guanylyl cyclase activity was blocked, there was again a reversion of the inhibitory effect into a stimulatory action, suggesting that the effect of NO was mediated by the production of cGMP. PKG inhibition prevented the inhibitory effect of PST, but there was no stimulatory effect. Therefore, the inhibitory effect of PST on growth and proliferation of hepatoma cells may be mainly mediated by eNOS activation. In turn, the effect of NO may be mediated by cGMP, whereas other pathways in addition to PKG activation seem to mediate the inhibition of DNA and protein synthesis by PST in HTC hepatoma cells.

Pancreastatin action in the liver: dual coupling to different G proteins.

Pancreastatin is a 49 amino acid peptide first isolated, purified and characterized from porcine pancreas. Its biological activity in different tissues can be assigned to the C-terminal part of the molecule. Pancreastatin has a prohormonal precursor, chromogranin A, which is a glycoprotein present in neuroendocrine cells, including the endocrine pancreas. We have been interested in pancreastatin action in the liver. We found that pancreastatin has a glycogenolytic effect in the hepatocyte both in vivo and in vitro. We then studied and characterized the specific pancreastatin receptor in the rat liver plasma membrane, as well as the specific signal transduction. This receptor appears to be coupled to two different G proteins. A pertussis toxin-insensitive G proteins leads to the activation of phospholipase C, and therefore mediates the glycogenolytic effect in the liver by increasing cytoplasmic free calcium and stimulating protein kinase C. The role of cyclic GMP in the action of pancreastatin is not known yet, although it seems to regulate negatively the activation of phospholipase C. The precise mechanism by which pancreastatin stimulates guanylate cyclase activity remains to be studied.

cDNA cloning and characterization of a novel 16 kDa protein located in zymogen granules of rat pancreas and goblet cells of the gut.

By immunoscreening of a cDNA expression library of rat pancreas with a polyspecific antibody to purified rat zymogen granule membranes, we have cloned a cDNA coding for a novel protein of about 16 kDa (ZG-16p). By both immunocytochemistry and Western blot analysis of different fractions of rat pancreas with anti-ZG-16 antibodies, the protein could be localized in the content fraction of zymogen granules and also, to a lesser extent, bound to the granule membranes. Computer-based sequence analysis revealed no significant homologies to any of the known proteins of zymogen granules. A N-terminal portion of about 20 amino acids was predicted as a potential secretory signal sequence and may reflect the intracellular localization of the protein. As revealed by Northern blot analysis of total RNA from various organs of the rat, expression of the corresponding gene is restricted by only pancreas, colon, duodenum, and, to a much lesser extent, stomach. No traces of ZG-16 RNA were detectable in any of the other tissues tested so far. Expression of the ZG-16-gene in pancreatic cells is slightly stimulated by treatment of rats with cerulein, a decapeptide analogue of cholecystokinin, which is known to stimulate secretion in acinar cells. In contrast, treatment of the rat pancreatic tumor cell line, AR4-2J, with 10 nM dexamethasone, which has been shown to increase the synthesis and secretion of all secretory enzymes of rat pancreas accompanied with an increase in the secretory machinery, leads to a remarkable increase in the expression of ZG-16. Thus the expression pattern of the ZG-16 gene in response to hormonal stimulation of rat pancreatic acinar cells resembles those found for most of the secretory enzymes. The localization of ZG-16p and the regulation of ZG-16 gene expression in response to hormonal stimulation of pancreatic acinar cells leads us to presume that this novel protein has a functional role in the complex and ill-understood processes involved in the regulated secretory pathway of these cells.

Autocrine regulation of parathyroid secretion: inhibition of secretion by chromogranin-A (secretory protein-I) and potentiation of secretion by chromogranin-A and pancreastatin antibodies.

Chromogranin-A, also referred to as secretory protein-I, is a 50-kDa protein present in and secreted by most endocrine cells together with the native hormone. Porcine chromogranin-A contains a sequence identical to pancreastatin, suggesting that it is the precursor of pancreastatin. Pancreastatin is a potent inhibitor of parathyroid gland secretion, and it and chromogranin-A inhibit glucose-stimulated insulin release by the pancreas. It is possible that chromogranin-A, pancreastatin, or a related peptide is a physiological inhibitor of secretion by the parathyroid as well as other endocrine glands. As a test of this hypothesis, parathyroid cells in culture were incubated with purified porcine chromogranin-A or antisera to chromogranin-A and pancreastatin. In the absence of exogenous chromogranin-A or antisera, secretion of chromogranin-A and PTH at 0.5 mM Ca2+ was about twice that at 3.0 mM Ca2+. When intact chromogranin-A was added to the incubation medium at 0.5 mM Ca2+, secretion was reduced to the basal level obtained at 3.0 mM Ca2+. Chromogranin-A did not affect the secretion of cells incubated at 3.0 mM Ca2+. At 1 h of incubation, 100 nM chromogranin-A was equivalent in potency to 1 nM pancreastatin, but after 3 h the two agents were equipotent. This suggests that chromogranin-A was processed into biologically active peptide(s) during incubation. Antisera directed against chromogranin-A or pancreastatin potentiated the secretion of both chromogranin-A and PTH at 0.5 mM, but not 3.0 mM, Ca2+. This stimulatory action of the antisera was dose dependent from 1:3200 to 1:400 final dilution, was effective within 2 h, and did not shift the Ca2+ set-point for glandular secretion. These results are consonant with chromogranin-A-derived peptides serving as an autocrine inhibitor of parathyroid gland secretion.

The importance of the C-terminal amide structure of rat pancreastatin to inhibit pancreatic exocrine secretion.

A C-terminal fragment of rat pancreatatin, a 26 residue peptide amide and a fragment without a C-terminal amide were synthesized by Fmoc-based solid phase methods and their biological activities were compared. The rat C-terminal fragment inhibited pancreatic exocrine secretions produced by the intravenous injection of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (a central vagal nerve stimulation), whereas the fragment without a C-terminal amide showed no effect on pancreas. These results indicate that the C-terminal amide of this peptide is necessary to reveal its biological activity.

3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA reductase in cultured hepatocytes. Regulation by heterologous lipoproteins and hormones.

Regulation of the key enzyme of cholesterol synthesis, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA reductase (EC: 1.1.1.34), by heterologous human lipoproteins and hormones was studied in a maintenance culture of rat hepatocytes. The liver cells were cultured under hormone and serum free conditions and maintained differentiated morphology and specific function. Under control conditions total HMG-CoA reductase increased by 50% after 24 h culture compared to 0 h values immediately after isolation. Thereafter a plateau of enzyme activity was reached lasting until 48 h, with a slight decline at 72 h. Concomitantly the "expressed" enzyme activity increased steadily, probably through dephosphorylation of latent reductase, the activation was largely complete at 48 h. During the steady state period of total reductase VLDL added to the medium at concentrations up to 50 microgram/ml protein had no effect o HMG-CoA reductase activity. In contrast, LDL suppressed the enzyme in a dose-dependent fashion to 40% of controls at 100 microgram/ml. On the other hand, HDL had the opposite effect with a significant induction up to 252% of controls at 50 microgram/ml. Insulin also caused a comparable dose-dependent stimulation of enzyme activity at 10(-8) and 10(-7)M, whereas glucagon inhibited reductase activity. Compared to the insulin action, triiodothyronine and triamcinolone prompted a minor, but still significant increase of reductase activity. Insulin and triamcinolone acted synergistically, but the combination of triamcinolone and tri-iodothyronine was only additive. All hormonal inductions of reductase could be blocked by cycloheximide. The present data establish that HMG-CoA reductase of maintenance cultured hepatocytes is subject to a complex regulation by heterologous lipoproteins as well as pancreatic, adrenal and thyroid hormones.

Pancreastatin: further evidence for its consideration as a regulatory peptide.

Pancreastatin is a 49 amino acid peptide first isolated, purified and characterized from the porcine pancreas, and whose biological activity in different tissues can be assigned to the C-terminal part of the molecule. Pancreastatin has a prohormonal precursor, chromogranin A (CGA), which is a glycoprotein present in neuroendocrine cells, including the endocrine pancreas. Both intracellular and extracellular processing of CGA can yield pancreastatin. This processing is tissue-specific, with the pancreatic islet and antral gastric endocrine cells being the major source of fully processed pancreastatin. Most of the circulating CGA is secreted by chromaffin tissue. Therefore, peripheral processing of CGA is probably the major indirect source of pancreastatin. Pancreastatin seems to have a general modulatory control on endocrine (insulin, glucagon, parathormone) and exocrine (pancreatic, gastric) secretion from tissues close to the source of production. This has led to the assumption that pancreastatin may be a peptide with an autocrine and paracrine function. It has recently been revealed to be a peptide with a metabolic function counter-regulatory to insulin action. This effect, in conjunction with the inhibitory effect on insulin and pancreatic exocrine secretion, points to a role in the physiology of stress. The molecular mechanism of the glycogenolytic effect of pancreastatin is better known, although further work is still needed. In general, more studies should be carried out at the molecular level to investigate the mechanism of action of pancreastatin and thus to clarify its physiological role in the neuroendocrine system.

Cognitive function in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus during hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia.

BACKGROUND: To determine the impact of glycemic control, gender, and other relevant parameters on cognitive function during exposure to different blood glucose levels in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), we examined neuropsychologic function during experimentally induced periods of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia. METHODS: We studied 20 men and 22 women, aged 18 to 44 years, with IDDM duration of 3 to 14 years and HbA1 values ranging from 5.8% to 18.0% (nondiabetic range 5.4% to 7.4%). We used a controlled experimental setting involving tests of sensory perceptual processing, simple motor abilities, attention, learning and memory, language, and spatial and constructional abilities at plasma glucose levels of 2.2, 5.6, 8.9, 14.4, and 21.1 mmol/L. Patients were blind to the glucose level. Tests used at each glucose level included reaction time (simple and choice), digit vigilance, trail making part B, word recall, digit sequence learning, and verbal fluency. RESULTS: All aspects of neuropsychologic function were diminished at 2.2 mmol/L when compared with basal levels of performance at 8.9 mmol/L, whereas no alterations were observed at 14.4 or 21.1 mmol/L. Tests involving associative learning, attention, and mental flexibility were the most affected during hypoglycemia. Glycemic control was not correlated with neuropsychologic function at any glucose level. Women demonstrated less of an impairment in neuropsychologic function than men at 2.2 mmol/L. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive function in IDDM patients was generally well-preserved even at substantially elevated blood glucose levels. Deficits in all relevant areas of cognitive function occurred during hypoglycemia (2.2 mmol/L), irrespective of prior glycemic control, and women with IDDM were less cognitively impaired than men with IDDM during hypoglycemia.

Studies of the dysglycemic peptide, pancreastatin, using a human forearm model.

The physiologic effects of the chromogranin A peptide fragment, pancreastatin, were studied in six healthy Caucasian men, ages 25-46 years. Synthetic pancreastatin (human chromogranin A(273-301)-amide) was infused into the brachial artery of each subject to achieve a local concentration of approximately 200 nM over 15 minutes. Forearm blood flow was measured by strain-gauge plethysmography while (A-V)(glucose) was monitored by arterial and venous sampling. Pancreastatin infusion significantly reduced forearm glucose uptake (mean reduction +/- 1 SEM, 54 +/- 15%; P = 0.028) but did not alter forearm blood flow-indicating a metabolic, rather than hemodynamic, effect. Simultaneous infusion of pancreastatin with insulin (0.1 mU/kg/min) did not diminish insulin-induced forearm glucose uptake, suggesting pancreastatin is not simply a negative insulin modulator. The results of this study suggest that pancreastatin may contribute to the dysglycemia associated with type 2 diabetes and essential hypertension, two common human disease states in which plasma pancreastatin levels are elevated.

Islet somatostatin--microvascular, paracrine, and pulsatile regulation.

The possible role of the D cell in the regulation of islet hormone secretion has been controversial for many years. It is known that the D cells characteristically reside in the islet mantle interspaced among A cells. We have shown by the anterograde and retrograde infusion of antibody directed against insulin, glucagon, or somatostatin into the isolated rat and dog pancreas that blood flow within the islet is from the B-cell core outward to the mantle. Despite the apparent randomness of the A and D cell in the mantle, our results indicate a further suborder of cellular perfusion in the mantle with the A cells perfused before the D cells. The D cells are last in line in terms of secretion. Thus the D cell is vascularly neutral and cannot directly effect A- or B-cell secretion through the intra-islet vasculature. Our results demonstrate that the B to A to D cellular order of perfusion is responsible for the regulation of islet hormone secretion, ie, insulin regulates the secretion of glucagon and glucagon (and probably insulin) regulate the secretion of somatostatin. Although each hormone is secreted as pulses, there does not appear to be a consistent phase relationship between insulin, glucagon, or somatostatin. The B to A to D cellular order of perfusion is responsible for net and integrated hormone secretion, but may not be the motive force of pulsatile secretion. Our studies have not documented a role for intra-islet mantle somatostatin. These results strongly suggest that the D cell is not a paracrine regulator of islet hormone secretion, but may be important in the regulation of exocrine function.

Pancreastatin--a mediator in the islet-acinar axis?

Pancreastatin was isolated from porcine pancreas in 1986 and has been shown to inhibit insulin release and exocrine pancreatic secretion in vivo. In the isolated perfused rat pancreas, we investigated its effect on the exocrine pancreas and evaluated its indirect effects mediated via the islet-acinar axis. In the presence of 16.7 mmol/L glucose, 20 pmol/L, 200 pmol/L, and 2 nmol/L pancreastatin reduced insulin release but did not affect exocrine pancreatic secretion stimulated by cholecystokinin (CCK), secretin, or bombesin. Pancreastatin also failed to affect unstimulated exocrine pancreatic secretion. In the presence of 1.7 mmol/L glucose, 200 pmol/L and 2 nmol/L pancreastatin inhibited glucagon release and potentiated CCK-stimulated exocrine pancreatic secretion. Inhibition of glucagon release and augmentation of exocrine pancreatic secretion may be independent phenomena, but they could be linked by the islet-acinar axis. Thus we speculate that a pancreastatin-induced inhibition of glucagon release may indirectly have caused augmentation of exocrine pancreatic secretion.

Production and secretion of chromogranin A and pancreastatin by the human pancreatic carcinoma cell line QGP-1N on stimulation with carbachol.

Chromogranin A (CGA) is thought to be a precursor of pancreastatin (PST). Carbachol (Cch) stimulated the secretion of CGA and PST from QGP-1N cells derived from a human pancreatic islet cell tumor. Atropine inhibited the secretion of both. Sodium fluoride, phorbol ester, and calcium ionophore also stimulated the secretion of both. Cch (10(-5) M) stimulated inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate production in QGP-1N cells. Stimulation with Cch increased the total amount of PST in the cells and the medium 1.7-fold and decreased the amount of CGA in the cells and medium. QGP-1N cells were labelled with [35S]methionine, and then CGA and PST in the cells and medium were immunoprecipitated with specific antisera, and separated by electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel. Stimulation with Cch resulted in an increase in the intensity of PST-immunoreactive bands and a decrease in those of CGA-immunoreactive bands. Cch did not increase the cellular level of CGA messenger RNA. These results suggested that (1) the secretion of CGA and PST from QGP-1N cells is regulated mainly through muscarinic receptors coupled with activation of polyphosphoinositide breakdown by a G protein, with intracellular calcium ion and protein kinase C playing a role in the stimulus-secretion coupling and that (2) Cch may induce the secretion of PST and CGA and processing from CGA to PST.

A comparison of the insulinotropic and the insulin-inhibitory actions of gut peptides on newborn and adult rat islet cells.

The objective of this study was to examine the release of insulin from cultured islet cells, taken from the pancreas of newborn and adult rats, in response to gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP), cholecystokinin-8 (CCK-8), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), and pancreastatin. GIP (10(-9)-10(-7) M) potentiated glucose-stimulated release of insulin in a dose-dependent fashion from both newborn and adult islet cells. CCK-8 (greater than 10(-8) M) also increased glucose-stimulated release of insulin from newborn islet cells, however its effect was not significant and not as strong as that observed with adult islet cells. Culture of newborn islet cells for 3 weeks with media containing high concentrations of glucose (16.7 mM) enhanced insulin release in response to CCK-8. CGRP did not affect the release of insulin from newborn islet cells, whereas at 10(-10) M, it reduced the release of insulin from adult islet cells by 66 +/- 4%. Pancreastatin (10(-9)-10(-8) M) did not affect the release of insulin from newborn islet cells when cells were incubated with 4.2 mM glucose, whereas it stimulated the release of insulin from adult islet cells in a dose-dependent fashion. When incubated with 16.7 mM glucose, pancreastatin inhibited the release of insulin from both newborn and adult islet cells. These results indicate that newborn islet cells experience developmental changes which render them responsive to enteric peptides.

Interaction of adrenal and pancreatic hormones in the control of hepatic enzymes during development.

In the liver of suckling rats, the synthesis of hepatic tyrosine aminotransferase, serine dehydratase, and phosphofructokinase 2 as well as of renal beta-glucosidase is controlled by the circulating concentrations of adrenal and pancreatic hormones. Glucagon is capable of stimulating enzyme synthesis only in the presence of a steroid hormone. Dexamethasone and estradiol have been found to exert a permissive function on the inducibility of the studied enzymes by glucagon. Between the hormones of the adrenal medulla and glucagon antagonistic effects in enzyme induction were observed. Obviously, this antagonism is mediated by the alpha 1-adrenergic signal transferring system. A characteristic age dependence of enzyme induction by dexamethasone has been established. This might be correlated to alterations in the degree of methylation of the respective promoters. The methylation inhibitor 5-azacytidine influences significantly the enzyme induction by glucocorticoid hormones.

Mealing and related hormone release suppress hypothalamic lesions of neonatal mice by L-glutamate.

Neonatal mice, under fasting conditions, are susceptible to the development of lesions in the arcuate nucleus (AN) of the hypothalamus, with high doses of monosodium L-glutamate (MSG). Feeding of nutrients (e.g., sugars and L-amino acids) has been shown to have a protective effect against the development of these lesions. The purpose of these studies was to elucidate the mechanism of this protective effect. Histopathologic examination of lesions of the AN demonstrated that feeding of weaning mice before subcutaneous administration of toxic doses of MSG suppressed the development of these lesions, as compared to fasted controls. Similarly, the number of necrotic cells in the AN of neonates administered toxic doses of MSG subcutaneously was reduced when D-glucose and L-arginine were administered orally. Atropine obliterated the protective effect of D-glucose. Pretreatments consisting of gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) + oral D-glucose had a protective effect of higher potency than GIP alone. Pretreatments with insulin, anorexigenic peptide (pyroGlu-His-Gly), cholecystokinin, glucagon, bombesin, and substance P (in decreasing order of effectiveness) demonstrated a protective effect against the AN lesion in neonates, whereas somatostatin and beta-endorphin had no effect. Results suggest that the protective effect of nutrients may in part be due to the stimulation of peptide hormone release during the postabsorptive phase. It is postulated that the effect of entero-pancreatic hormone, especially insulin, is to enhance the tolerance of AN neurons of neonatal mice to the toxic dose of L-glutamate.