Calcitonin gene-related peptide: enteric and cardiovascular effects in the dog.

We have measured the effects of intravenous infusion of calcitonin gene-related peptide at doses of 2.5, 10, and 50 pmol/kg.min on net jejunal water and solute fluxes and on plasma somatostatin concentrations in dogs. The hemodynamic effects and the pharmacokinetics of the peptide were also assessed. Using the triple-lumen perfusion technique in unsedated restrained animals it was shown that the highest dose of the peptide stimulated a transient net jejunal water and electrolyte secretion, and induced diarrhea in 4 of 6 animals receiving it. The peptide also induced dose-dependent tachycardia, hypotension, and increases in plasma immunoreactive somatostatin. All three doses of calcitonin gene-related peptide produced plasma immunoreactive peptide levels within the elevated range previously measured in human patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma. Calcitonin gene-related peptide may have a major role in the pathogenesis of secretory diarrhea in medullary thyroid carcinoma.