Somatostatin has an antiproliferative effect on concanavalin A-activated rat thymocytes.

Somatostatin, a cyclic tetradecapeptide which is widely distributed in different tissues of the body, exerts an inhibitory effect on numerous cellular processes. It has been observed recently that somatostatin and its analogs were antimitogenic in several established cultured cell lines and in rat tumors. To determine whether this ubiquitous peptide had an antiproliferative effect on a primary culture of rat thymocytes, we observed its effect on the separation of the centrosome (a cell maker of the G1 to S traverse) and DNA synthesis of rat thymocytes activated by concanavalin A. Somatostatin inhibited both indices of proliferation in rat thymocytes at a concentration of 10(-8)M. This observation suggests that somatostatin, which has been localized in the thymus, may play a regulatory role in the growth and development of the cells found in the thymus gland, and may affect thymocyte function in disease states characterized by elevated circulating concentrations of somatostatin.