Effect of atropine on pancreatic bicarbonate output and plasma concentrations of immunoreactive secretin in response to intraduodenal stimulants.

In conscious dogs with gastric and pancreatic Thomas fistulas we studied the effect of atropine (50 micrograms kg-1 intravenously) on pancreatic bicarbonate output and plasma concentrations of immunoreactive secretin in response to intraduodenal bolus injections of HCl (0.75 mmol), L-tryptophan (1 mmol), and sodium oleate (1 mmol). The 10-min integrated bicarbonate response to HCl was 1.7 times greater than the response to oleate and 2.8 times greater than that to tryptophan. Atropine significantly (p less than 0.05) depressed the 10-min integrated bicarbonate response to HCl, oleate, and tryptophan by 67%, 79%, and 61%, respectively. HCl and oleate, but not tryptophan, significantly increased plasma secretin concentrations over basal levels. Atropine did not significantly alter basal plasma concentrations of secretin or the 10-min integrated plasma secretin response to HCl and oleate. We conclude that 1) intraduodenal tryptophan stimulates pancreatic bicarbonate secretion by an atropine-sensitive mechanism, release of secretin not being involved, and 2) in the presence of atropine the depressed pancreatic bicarbonate response to HCl and oleate is not due to decreased release of endogenous secretin.