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Somatostatin

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology

  • 96 Accesses

Synonyms

Somatotropin release-inhibiting factor; SRIF

Definition

Somatostatin is a cyclic peptide widely expressed throughout the central nervous system (CNS), in endocrine tissues, and in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). The 14 amino acid peptide, somatostatin (SRIF-14), was first identified and isolated from ovine hypothalamic extracts by Guillemin and collaborators (Brazeau et al. 1973) during their search of GHRH hormone/growth hormone (GH)-releasing hormone, instead they identified SRIF as a potent inhibitor of growth hormone release from the pituitary. Subsequently, a longer N-terminally extended form (SRIF-28) was identified in the periphery, both deriving from the same prepropeptide.

Pharmacological Properties

Introduction

About 20 years later, a rat neuropeptide with strong homology to SRIF was identified, cloned, and named cortistatin (CST) due to its supposed brain selective expression; however, CST is also present in the periphery. In rodents, CST is a tetradecapeptide...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus, Victoria, 3010, Australia

    Daniel Hoyer

  2. Faculté de Médecine, Centre de Psychiatrie and Neuroscience, UMR 894, Université Paris Descartes, 2 ter rue d’Alésia, 75014, Paris, France

    Jacques Epelbaum & Cécile Viollet

Authors
  1. Daniel Hoyer
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  2. Jacques Epelbaum
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  3. Cécile Viollet
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Hoyer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Behavioural Pharmacology, King's College London Institute of Psychiatry P049, London, United Kingdom

    Ian P. Stolerman

  2. Brown Medical School, Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Lawrence H. Price

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hoyer, D., Epelbaum, J., Viollet, C. (2014). Somatostatin. In: Stolerman, I., Price, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27772-6_309-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27772-6_309-3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27772-6

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