Somatostatin

[MDwannabe7]

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I just read a post from 2003, so I don't know how accurate it still is. However, in studying the endocrine system, I became confused by somatostatin as it inhibits pretty much everything. Secretion from the Delta cells in the pancreas is stimulated by high blood glucose are amino acid levels, but it then decreases both insulin and glucagon secretion. The glucagon part makes sense, but in high blood glucose levels, wouldn't you want insulin secreted? Then why does somatostatin inhibit it? There is only a small 2-sentence paragraph about somatostatin in my Kaplan book - so maybe that's indicative of how much we need to know for the MCAT (I hope).

 

[sdb09]

I don't know if this answers your question or not, but from what I remember Somatostatin is generally an inhibitory hormone. So it is going to inhibit the actions of both glucagon and insulin. I think it also inhibits other things, such as some GI hormones (I think gastrin for example) and also GH release.