Selective ligand-induced intracellular calcium changes in a population of rat isolated gastric endocrine cells

Background & Aims: Peripheral regulation of acid secretion depends mainly on stimulation or inhibition of the three major gastric endocrine cells (enterochromaffin-like, gastrin, and somatostatin), The aim of this paper was to define physiological responses of enterochromaffin-like, gastrin, and somatostatin cells in a mixed endocrine cell population by measuring ligand-selective changes of intracellular calcium ([Ca2+](i)) in individual cells. Methods: Endocrine cells were enriched from a rat gastric cell suspension by elutriation, a density-gradient fractionation, and a 48-hour shortterm culture, [Ca2+](i) responses of individual cells to various ligands such as gastrin/carboxy-terminal cholecystokinin octapeptide and selective cholecystokinin antagonists, carbachol, and gastrin-releasing peptide were monitored using video imaging in a perfusion chamber. Characteristic [Ca2+](i) changes distinguished the three cell types, confirmed by immunostaining. Results: All enterochromaffin-like cells respond to cholecystokinin-B receptor stimulation, but only a few respond to carbachol. Gastrin cells respond to both gastrin-releasing peptide and carbachol but not to cholecystokinin-receptor agonists, Somatostatin cells have both stimulatory cholecystokinin-A and cholecystokinin-B receptors and inhibitory muscarinic receptors, All cells have inhibitory somatostatin receptors. Conclusions: Calcium-signaling responses of gastric endocrine cells are distinctive, This allows individual cell types in a mixed population to be characterized and permits an analysis of the hormones and transmitters that act directly on a specific cell type.