Somatostatin, 1976

Somatostatin, a growth hormone release-inhibiting factor, isolated originally from the hypothalamus, has been shown to have widespread effects on brain and endocrine and exocrine pancreatic and gut function. Furthermore, it has a widespread distribution in the CNS, gut and C cells of the thyroid -- cells which probably migrated originally from the neural crest during development. While the pharmacological effects of somatostatin are diffuse, its physiological role is at present unknown, but in view of its concentration in synaptosomal fractions of neural tissue, it may have a neurotransmitter or a synaptic modulator function.