Gastric distention and gastrin in the dog.

Gastric distention was induced in intact dogs by giving a wide range of volumes (11 to 111 ml/kg) of a liquid test meal resulting in a significant (P less than 0.05) increase in plasma gastrin immunoreactivity at 10 and 25 minutes after distention. There was no significant decrease in gastrin immunoreactivity from 10 to 25 minutes of gastric distention. Pretreatment with atropine abolished the distention-induced gastrin release, indicating that distention-induced gastrin release in the intact dog was partially under cholinergic control. There was no relationship between the distending volume and magnitude of gastrin increase.