[Neurotensin--what is known about its role as a hormone in the gastrointestinal tract?].

Neurotensin is a tridecapeptide originally isolated and characterized from bovine hypothalamus and later, in identical form, from bovine and human intestine. In the rat about 85% of immunoreactive neurotensin is found in the gut and about 10% in the brain. When an antibody specific for the amino terminal region of neurotensin was used the highest concentrations were found in the mucosa of the ileum, while an antibody specific for the biologically active region, the carboxyl terminus, also detected large amounts in the mucosa of the upper gastrointestinal tract. After a meal neurotensin - as measured by carboxyl terminal antibodies - rises after 5 min, a time in which the chymus has not yet reached the ileum, the main source of whole neurotensin. It is therefore possible that the carboxyl terminal molecules of neurotensin, found in the upper gastrointestinal tract, play an important physiological role. In plasma, neurotensin is rapidly degraded into smaller amino terminal and therefore biologically inactive molecules. Increases of carboxyl terminal neurotensin have been found in plasma in only a very few studies. The nature of this immunoreactive material has not yet been established. Therefore, the physiological role of neurotensin as a circulating hormone is unknown. Potential actions of neurotensin include thermoregulation, regulation of hormone release from brain (pituitary hormones) and gut (glucagon, insulin, somatostatin, pancreatic polypeptide), increase of vascular permeability, vasodilatation, inhibition of gastric acid secretion, stimulation of pancreatic secretion and changes of gut motility from the fasting to the fed type.