Benzon Symposium No. 53

 

The New Biology of the Gastrin-Cholecystokinin Family of Hormones 

Copenhagen, October 9-12, 2006

 

Organizing committee:

Jens F. Rehfeld (Copenhagen), Jens Bundgaard (Copenhagen), Anders H. Johnsen (Copenhagen), Rolf Håkanson (Lund) and Arne Svejgaard (Copenhagen)  

Invited speakers and chairmen: 
Joel W. ADELSON, USA - Margery C. BEINFELD, USA - Sir James BLACK, United Kingdom - Luc BOUWENS, Belgium - Jacques BRADWEJN, Canada - Jens R. BUNDGAARD, Denmark - Duan CHEN, Norway - Graham J. DOCKRAY, United Kingdom - Jan FAHRENKRUG, Denmark - Daniel FOURMY, France - Lennart FRIIS-HANSEN, Denmark - Hans Hermann GERDES, Norway - Jens P. GØTZE, Denmark - Gary M. GREEN, USA - Rolf HÅKANSON, Sweden - Linda HILSTED, Denmark - Tomas HÖKFELT, Sweden - Jens Juul HOLST, Denmark - Robert T. JENSEN, USA - Anders H. JOHNSEN, Denmark - Alan S. KOPIN, USA - Iris LINDBERG, USA - Juanita L. MERCHANT, USA - Finn Cilius NIELSEN, Denmark - Jens F. REHFELD, Denmark - Jean Claude REUBI, Switzerland - Ove B. SCHAFFALITZKY DE MUCKADELL, Denmark - Frank SCHMITZ, Germany - Arthur SHULKES, Australia - Donald F. STEINER, USA - Eero VASAR, Estonia - Helge WALDUM, Norway - Timothy Cragin WANG, USA

 

Synopsis:
Multicellular organisms require coordination of their functions via messenger molecules. Peptide hormones constitute such a group of messengers, which have governed animal function and behavior through at least 600 million years of evolution.
It is, however, only a hundred years ago since the first peptide hormones were discovered, among them gastrin. Gastrin has later been shown to be structurally and functionally closely related to the intestinal hormone, cholecystokinin (CCK). And phylogenetic evidence today indicates that gastrin and CCK have evolved from a single ancestor.
Until the nineteen-seventies, gastrin and CCK were conceived as simple gastrointestinal hormones that regulated gastric acid secretion, gallbladder contractions and pancreatic enzyme secretion. But in the wake of modern cell and molecular biology, the last decades have changed the picture entirely: The gastrin and CCK genes are expressed in a multitude of organs also outside the gut; the biogenesis is elaborate and the prohormones processed in highly complex manners to release several different bioactive peptide in a tissue and cell-specific manner; the peptides are secreted to blood, synaptic clefts, or locally. Accordingly the peptides act not only as hormones, but also as neurotransmitters and growth factors. Finally, in addition to malfunctions of the upper digestive tract, the gastrin and CCK systems are also involved in major cancers and malignancies all over the body, in neuropsychriatic diseases (anxiety and eating disorders), and in diabetes mellitus and other endocrine diseases.

Scientific Programme:

Jens F. REHFELD: Welcome and opening comments

Session I: BIOGENESIS
Chair: Anders H. Johnsen
Sir James BLACK: Invention of gastrin receptor antagonists
Donald F. STEINER: An overview of neuroendocrine precursor processing
Iris LINDBERG: Proprotein convertases and their inhibitors
Hans H. GERDES: Biogenesis and delivery of secretory granules

Session I: BIOGENESIS
Chair: Finn Cilius Nielsen
Margery C. BEINFELD: Neuronal CCK synthesis
Jette Wagtberg SEN: Identification of tyrosine sulfation by mass spectrometry
Jens R. BUNDGAARD: Sorting of progastrin and proCCK
Jens P. GOETZE: Extracerebrointestinal CCK Synthesis

Session II: BIOACTIVITY
Chair: Joel Adelson
Duan CHEN: Genetic dissection of gastrin and CCK pathways that control gastric acid secretion
Gary GREEN: Endocrine forms and novel physiology of cholecystokinin
Alan S. KOPIN: Drosophila as a model system for studying cholecystokinin/gastrin receptor mediated physiology
Arthur SHULKES: Production, secretion and biological activity of progastrin derived peptides

Session II: BIOACTIVITY
Chair: Linda Hilsted
Andrea TODISCO: Signal transduction pathways mediating the anti-apoptotic actions of gastrin in pancreatic cancer cells
Ayman I. SAYEGH: Cholecystokinin (CCK) reduces food intake through a central, and not a myenteric pathway
Catherine SEVA: Tyrosine phosphatase SHP-2 in CCK2 receptor signalling: Role of an ITIM-like motif
Per NORLÈN: Tachyphylaxis of the ECL-cell response to PACAP: Depletion of secretory products or desensitization?
Timothy C. WANG: Progastrin and colon cancer
Jens F. REHFELD: Progastrin and its products: Definitions and activities

Session III: ORGAN-SPECIFIC ROLES
Chair: Eero Vasar
Tomas HÖKFELT: Cholecystokinin systems in the brain
Jacques BRADWEJN: CCK in psychiatric disorders
Graham J. DOCKRAY: CCK and gut-brain signaling
Rolf HÅKANSON: ECL cells: Operational control and anticipated function
 
Session III: ORGAN-SPECIFIC ROLES
Chair: Jens Juul Holst
Maria BERNSAND: Mechanism of ischemia-evoked histamine mobilization from rat stomach ECL cells
Susanne HILKE: Cholecystokinin levels in the rat brain during the estrous cycle
Sulev KÕKS: Immune activation in the central nervous system during neuropathic pain: Role of cholecystokinin B and toll-like 4 receptors
Pernille KOEFOED: An intron one polymorphism in the cholecystokinin receptor A gene is associated with schizophrenia in males
Luc BOUWENS: Gastrin, the endocrine pancreas and diabetes mellitus
Daniel FOURMY: Functioning of cholecystokinin and gastrin receptors

Session IV: NEOPLASIA
Chair: Ove Schaffalitzky de Muckadell
Frank SCHMITZ: Gastrin and CCK in gastrointestinal cancer
Jean Claude REUBI: Gastrin/CCK receptor expression in cancers
Juanita L. MERCHANT: Why loss of gastrin and sonic hedgehog precedes gastric atrophy and cancer
Discussion
Lennart FRIIS-HANSEN: Gastric cancer without gastrin  

Session IV: NEOPLASIA
Chair: Jan Fahrenkrug
Joy E.S. ARDILL: Laboratory diagnosis of gastrinoma
Reidar FOSSMARK: Fundic gland polyps caused by proton pump inhibition are not related to hypergastrinemia and serum chromogranin A is affected by meals
Karin BAKKELUND: Premalignant changes developing after two months of hypergastrinemia in female Japanese cotton rats are reversed by antrectomy
Signe EILAND: Expression of gastrin in human gastric cancer tissue
Dorte BALSVED: Hydrolysis of tyrosine O-sulfate in acidic solutions
Helge WALDUM: Neuroendocrine origin of gastric carcinomas
Robert T. JENSEN: Gastrinomas and CCKomas : Recent advances

Jens F. REHFELD: Concluding remarks

For abstracts click here

 

Further information:

For further information, please contact Dr. Jette Buur, The Alfred Benzon Foundation, Dantes Plads 3, II.t.v., DK-1556 Copenhagen V, Denmark, Phone: +45 3962 0937; Fax: +45 3962 0933; E-mail: benzon@post1.tele.dk