Somatostatin! Help!

[TTSD]

I'm confused about somatostatin! It seems to just inhibit everything which kind of confuses me as to its purpose.

Somatostatin will inhibit GH. Okay, fair enough. Reabsorption of glucose will continue at a normal rate. So it makes sense then that it also inhibits glucagon as you probably don't want to add more glucose to the blood. But why does it also inhibit Insulin?

Dammit.. stupid freakin' physio test tomorrow and I've been sitting here wondering about this..

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[jlee9531]

i remember when i learned about it a couple years back....i was told that somatostatin is not well understood because of the fact that it inhibits both glucagon and insulin.

to sum it up somatostatin basically inhibits the secretion of many hormones for reasons not well understood.

it also decreases intestinal motility for trivia haha.

 

[TTSD]

"Not fully understood.." just like every other thing in medicine.. makes my head freakin' hurt at times. I remember my developmental neuro class.. every other line in the book was "this is a theory.. not fully understood.."

 

[ASDIC]

somatostatin is produced in the hypothalamus and exerts its inhibitory effect mainly on the GH producing cells in the anterior pituitary.

 

[TTSD]

Originally posted by thekegalman
somatostatin is produced in the hypothalamus and exerts its inhibitory effect mainly on the GH producing cells in the anterior pituitary.

No, somatostatin is produced by the pancreas' delta cells. It exerts its influence on the hypothalamus inhibiting the effects of GHRH.

 

[ASDIC]

SS has 2 sites of secretion.
1) Hypothalamus
2) delta cells of the pancreas

The SS in the hypothalamus targets the pituitary gland receptors and inhibits the production of GH. The SS secretred travels directly through the hypothlamic-adenohypophysic portal system.

The SS secreted from the delta cells in the Islet of Langerhans in the pancreas inhibits the activity of IGF-I. Here it mixes with the systemic blood circulation.

In both cases, the effect of SS is the same, to inhibit the effects of GH.

 

[Bridaddy]

I haven't had any of the classes you all have, but this interests me, and I was wondering what you all thought about this.

I know (having diabetes) that if I eat a lot of carbs, my blood sugar will be constantly spiking then diping, trying to bring it back into equilibrum. Making large inputs (a lot of carbs, then a lot of insulin) tends to create these swings, and despite best efforts, can happen. I liken it to driving a big rig truck, and having to swerve on a wet road because of a cat, end up swinging back and forth until you can get righted.

I really don't know anything about this hormone, but I wonder if it could combat these swings in blood sugar by supressing both insulin and glucagon when someone has eaten a bunch of carbs. This would cut the top off the peaks of both being released. The delayed stomach emptying would slow the spike of blood sugar as well, helping to bring the system back to homostastis.

It sounds like this somatostatin does a lot of other things too, and like I said I haven't had the right classes yet.

Just something that came to mind, anyone want to tell me why I'm wrong

 

[TTSD]

Originally posted by thekegalman
SS has 2 sites of secretion.
1) Hypothalamus
2) delta cells of the pancreas

The SS in the hypothalamus targets the pituitary gland receptors and inhibits the production of GH. The SS secretred travels directly through the hypothlamic-adenohypophysic portal system.

The SS secreted from the delta cells in the Islet of Langerhans in the pancreas inhibits the activity of IGF-I. Here it mixes with the systemic blood circulation.

In both cases, the effect of SS is the same, to inhibit the effects of GH.

You're absolutely correct. Didn't read that part tucked away under the graphs.

Bad sign for medical school, lol.

 

[jlee9531]

its all good....medical school doesnt know why SS does all this crap either.