The endocrine stomach is a geography: gastrin-making G cells clustered in the antrum, ghrelin cells in the fundus, histamine-releasing ECL cells in the acid body, somatostatin D cells policing both. These are enteroendocrine cells in place — the gut's diffuse gland concentrated at its first station. The acid factory they govern is the gastric gland page.
Hormones & Regulation
Gastrin: peptides and distension trigger it; it drives acid via ECL histamine and parietal-cell stimulation.
Somatostatin and pH close the loop: acid in the antrum silences G cells — a setpoint in hardware.
Ghrelin: rises before meals, falls after — the stomach's hunger clock.
Physiological Role
Acid orchestration: the gastrin-histamine-acid triangle runs the stomach's digestive chemistry.
Mucosal trophic effects: gastrin maintains the oxyntic mucosa itself.
Meal initiation signaling to the hypothalamus — ghrelin's ride to the brain.
Interactions
Its output primes the pancreas and biliary tree downstream.
Part of the GI tract's diffuse endocrine system — its largest single station.
Gastrin's CCK cousins share receptors and ancestry.
Clinical Relevance
Zollinger-Ellison: gastrinoma's acid flood — ulcers refractory to standard therapy.
Pernicious anemia: achlorhydria with high gastrin as parietal cells are lost.
Ghrelin dynamics after bariatric surgery partly explain appetite loss — endocrine surgery by anatomy.
Gastrin's dual output — endocrine drive plus trophic maintenance of the acid mucosa — makes its excess a growth signal as well as an acid one.
Antral G cells and fundic D cells are the stomach's local endocrine congress: stimulate acid, restrain acid.