Pancreastatin

Where it comes from

Made in

Islet cells, chromaffin cells and neuroendocrine tumours, cut from chromogranin A

Sent out by

With insulin and catecholamines

Acts on

• Liver (glycogen breakdown)
• Fat cells (less glucose uptake)
• Beta cells (less insulin)

What it does

• Raises blood glucose and blunts insulin’s effect ¹
• Mice without chromogranin A are more insulin-sensitive, and giving pancreastatin undoes that
• A common variant (Gly297Ser) makes the more potent peptide and carries a 1.3 to 1.6-fold risk of diabetes, hypertension and coronary disease ²

In medicine

• A research marker in neuroendocrine tumours: in one series of 92 patients it was raised in 64 percent, against 43 percent for chromogranin A itself ³
• No approved medicine copies it or blocks it, so the interest in it is as a measurement

Beyond the body’s own use

• PSTi8, a peptide that blocks pancreastatin, lowered insulin resistance and fat accumulation in obese and diabetic mice; it has not been given to a person ⁴
• Nothing containing pancreastatin is approved and it is not taken outside medicine. The open question is whether blocking it helps human type 2 diabetes as it helps the mouse ⁴