What does somatostatin mean?
Somatostatin is a peptide hormone that helps regulate the body’s endocrine and digestive systems. It is produced in several tissues, including the hypothalamus, pancreas, and gastrointestinal tract, and it acts mainly by inhibiting secretion rather than stimulating it. Its best-known role is suppressing the release of growth hormone from the pituitary gland, but it also affects thyroid-stimulating hormone, insulin, glucagon, gastrin, and other gastrointestinal hormones. These actions make it important in controlling growth, nutrient absorption, pancreatic secretion, and the movement of material through the digestive tract. The word is most often encountered in medical research and in discussions of endocrine tumors or medicines that imitate the hormone. Synthetic analogues and derivatives, including octreotide and lanreotide, are used to treat conditions such as acromegaly and some neuroendocrine tumors. Somatostatin is therefore both a naturally occurring regulator and an important model for developing targeted treatments.
nounA peptide hormone and neuropeptide that inhibits the release of other hormones, especially growth hormone, and also regulates secretion from the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas. Synthetic versions and related analogues are used in treating certain endocrine and gastrointestinal disorders.
- A naturally occurring peptide hormone that inhibits the secretion of other hormones and gastrointestinal regulators, and that is also used as a pharmaceutical or in the development of therapeutic analogues.
"The tumor was producing excess somatostatin, causing diabetes and steatorrhea."
"Somatostatin suppressed growth hormone release from the pituitary gland."
"The patient received a somatostatin analogue to control symptoms of a neuroendocrine tumor."
The plural is uncommon in scientific prose but is grammatically standard when referring to multiple distinct forms or samples of the hormone.
"The researchers compared the effects of two somatostatins on secretion from pancreatic cells."
Somatostatin is the body’s multi-purpose brake: it can restrain hormone secretion, digestion, and signals in the brain.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of somatostatin
The name was formed in the twentieth century from Greek sōma, meaning “body,” and the technical suffix -statin, associated with inhibition or stopping. It was introduced into scientific usage as the name for a peptide that restrains hormone release. The Greek element also connects it with related terms such as somatic, somatocyte, and somatotroph, all of which refer to the body or to bodily structures and processes.
How somatostatin is actually used
This is a technical biomedical term, usually written as one word and used in medical, biochemical, and pharmacological contexts. The plural is uncommon; singular somatostatin is generally preferred when discussing the hormone as a substance.