Pancreatic bicarbonate, serum gastrin, and secretin responses to meals varying in pH.

The role of secretin in the postprandial bicarbonate response by the pancreas is not clear. This study reports secretin and bicarbonate secretion after exogenous and endogenous acidification of meal. In dogs with gastric and pancreatic fistulas, a liver extract meal at various pH levels was introduced into the stomach and kept at the preselected pH by intragastric titration. Gastric acid, pancreatic bicarbonate, serum gastrin, and plasma secretin were measured. The meal at pH 7 produced an increase of gastrin levels of 230% above basal and a gastric acid output from a basal of 0.8-16.9 meq/30 min. Acidification of the meal evoked a pH-dependent reduction of gastrin and gastric acid secretion, a pH-dependent elevation of pancreatic bicarbonate, and significant elevation of secretin at pH 3 (43% above basal) and at pH 2 (80% above basal). Postprandial endogenous acidification of a meal, without intragastric titration, also provoked significant release of secretin. Maximal pancreatic bicarbonate secretion in response to exogenous secretin was augmented 30% by the addition of a liver extract meal at pH7. It is concluded that in dogs with pancreatic fistulas, a meal exogenously or endogenously (postprandial) acidified is capable of the release of secretin in immunoassayable amounts. The normal pancreatic bicarbonate response to food may depend partially upon potentiation of the secretin effect by other neurohumoral stimuli.