Secretin (rat)

Secretin immunoreactivity in rat and pig brain has been identified and characterized utilizing a highly specific radioimmunoassay and fractionation on a high pressure liquid chromatographic system reverse phase column. One immunoreactive peak from each brain extract was observed. Secretin immunoreactivity from rat brain and duodenum coelute, but eluted slightly ahead of the immunoreactivity from pig brain and duodenum and from synthetic porcine secretin. Immunoreactive secretin is widely distributed in the thalamus, hypothalamus and olfactory bulb, cerebral cortex, midbrain, septum, striatum, hippocampus, medulla and pons. The highest concentrations occur in the pineal and the pituitary gland.

A secretin receptor was cloned from a commercial human pancreatic complementary DNA (cDNA) bank. The amino acid sequence deduced from the nucleotide sequence differed slightly from the three different sequences previously published, suggesting a genetic polymorphism of the human receptor. The binding properties of the receptor were evaluated by testing natural secretin, related peptides, and synthetic analogs or fragments on membranes of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells expressing the receptor after transfection. The second-messenger coupling was evaluated by adenylate cyclase measurement. The human secretin receptor was compared with the rat and the rabbit receptors. In the three animals species, rat and human secretin were equipotent; rabbit secretin was equipotent on human and rabbit secretin receptors and less potent on the rat receptor. Similar data were obtained for the [Arg16]-secretin analog. Deletion of histidine 1 and replacement of aspartate 3 reduced the affinity of the peptides for the three receptors; however, the reduction was more pronounced on rat than on human and rabbit secretin receptors. Finally, the low affinity of the rat and human receptors for vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) was identical; the rabbit receptor, however, had a 20-fold higher affinity. Thus the human secretin receptor shows properties of both rat and rabbit receptors. Evaluation of the properties of chimeric receptors will be useful to fit the ligand on the receptors.

For the evaluation of structure/activity relationships, some porcine secretin analogues, modified in the N-terminus, have been synthesized by segment condensation in solution. The secretin activity of the analogues was defined as the volume of pancreatic juice secreted in rats and dogs. The exchange of the N-terminal pentapeptide for the N-terminal pentapeptide of human somatotropin releasing factor (h-SRF) resulted in a peptide ([1-Tyr,2,4-Di-Ala,5-Ile]secretin) with practically no SRF-activity (less than 1% SRF-activity up to 100 micrograms/kg in the rat), but surprisingly high secretin activity (almost 100% in the rat, but only 1150 CU/mg (27%) in the dog). [3-L-Cysteic acid]secretin showed 1750 CU/mg (39%) in the dog, but a less activity (23%) in the rat. [6-D-Phe]secretin and [5-D-allo-Thr]secretin are again strongly species specific. They exhibited an activity of less than 1% in the dog, but about 10-15% in the rat. The smallest secretin activity was observed with [1-Cys,6-Cys]secretin in the oxidized form. The activity in the rat with this analogue was only about 0.2%.