Chief cells possess a receptor with high affinity for PACAP and VIP that stimulates pepsinogen release.

Digestive Diseases Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a 38-amino acid peptide of the secretin-vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) family. To investigate whether PACAP alters chief cell function, we prepared isolated chief cells (> 90% pure) from guinea pig stomach. PACAP-38, PACAP-27, VIP, and secretin all caused a threefold increase in pepsinogen release. The dose-response curves of PACAP-38, PACAP-27, and VIP were biphasic, whereas with secretin it was not. The first phase comprised 40% of maximal release, and each of the three peptides (PACAP-38, PACAP-27, and VIP) were equipotent (EC50 0.1-0.3 nM). For the second phase, comprising 60% of maximal release, the relative potencies were PACAP-38 > PACAP-27 = VIP. 125I-labeled secretin, 125I-VIP, and 125I-PACAP-27 all demonstrated saturable binding to chief cells. Binding of both 125I-PACAP-27 and 125I-VIP was inhibited completely and with similar potencies by PACAP-38, PACAP-27, and VIP. Secretin had a > 500-fold lower affinity than PACAP-38 for displacing both 125I-PACAP-27 and 125I-VIP. With 125I-secretin, secretin was the most potent, and was 197 times more potent than PACAP-38, which was 6-8 times more potent than both PACAP-27 and VIP. We conclude that both PACAP-38 and PACAP-27 stimulate pepsinogen secretion from dispersed chief cells. In contrast to a number of other tissues, no evidence for a high-affinity receptor that interacted only with PACAP was found. PACAP and VIP interact with equal high affinity with a common receptor and with low affinity with the secretin receptor.

PMID: 1335692 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]