Effect of Secretin in Functional Dyspepsia and Healthy Subjects

Insights into the pathophysiology of functional dyspepsia, with recent demonstration of inflammation with eosinophilia and mastocytosis in the duodenum (3, 6, 7), providing a possible lead toward reduced secretion of a potential mediator of post-prandial gastric accommodation, the gastrointestinal peptide hormone secretin. The dominant site of synthesis and secretion of this hormone are enteroendocrine S cells in the duodenum. Inflammation-induced damage to these cells could produce a deficiency. Since intraluminal acid is a prominent stimulant of S cell secretion, the attempts to treat functional dyspepsia with anti-secretory medications could actually exacerbate a secretin deficiency syndrome. This raises the possibility of the therapeutic use of a secretin agonist or a positive allosteric modulator of the secretin receptor for patients with functional dyspepsia.