1. Vesicular monoamine transporters (VMATs) translocate monoamines from the cytoplasm into secretory vesicles of endocrine cells and neurones, but they have limited affinity for histamine, and the identity of the vesicular transporter for this monoamine is uncertain. The aims of the present study were to characterize VMAT representatives in rat gastric corpus, and to determine if their expression was regulated by factors that modulate histamine biosynthesis. 2. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) cloning using oligonucleotide primers to DNA sequences conserved within the VMAT family provided evidence for VMAT2, but not VMAT1 in rat gastric corpus. Northern analysis using a VMAT2 complementary RNA probe revealed a single 4 kb mRNA species in corpus endocrine cells.3.. In rats treated for up to 5 days with the H+-K+-ATPase inhibitor omeprazole, VMAT2, histidine decarboxylase and chromogranin A mRNA abundance in gastric corpus, and plasma gastrin concentrations increased progressively. Omeprazole also elevated VMAT2 expression in rats fasted for 48 h, but fasting alone, or refeeding fasted animals had no effect. 4. The results are consistent with a role for VMAT2 in the transport of histamine into enterochromaffin-like cell secretory vesicles, and with upregulation of the transporter to accommodate the increased histamine biosynthesis and secretion that accompanies achlorhydria.

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1. Clearance of [14C]cholic acid from the systemic circulation was studied in six normal subjects and eight patients with biopsy-proven hepatic cirrhosis. In both groups, during fasting, the curve for disappearance of radioactivity from the serum during the first 100 min after [14C]cholic acid injection was double-exponential in form. During the early phase, clearance was significantly more rapid, and concentrations of conjugated and free bile acid were significantly lower, in normals than in cirrhotics. 2. Radioactivity disappeared from the systemic circulation of normals within 3 h, and neither intravenous cholecystokinin nor the ingestion of food influenced serum radioactivity. Almost all cirrhotic patients had ‘spontaneous’ rises in serum radioactivity, which began approximately 2 h after [14C]cholic acid injection. Cholecystokinin or food given 4–8 h after [14C]cholic acid administration, produced rises. Continuous aspiration of duodenal juice markedly reduced these rises. Reinfusion of duodenal juice into the upper intestine was followed by a rise in serum radioactivity. 3. All rises were due, almost exclusively, to conjugated bile acids. 4. Impaired bile acid clearance in cirrhotics may result from inefficient hepatic extraction of bile acids, increased leakage of conjugated bile acids from hepatic cells and shunting from portal to systemic circulations. The latter factor is probably responsible for elevated, fluctuating, plasma bile acid concentrations in cirrhotic patients.