Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide - Function

Function

VIP has an effect on several tissues:

  • With respect to the digestive system, VIP seems to induce smooth muscle relaxation (lower esophageal sphincter, stomach, gallbladder), stimulate secretion of water into pancreatic juice and bile, and cause inhibition of gastric acid secretion and absorption from the intestinal lumen. Its role in the intestine is to greatly stimulate secretion of water and electrolytes, as well as stimulating contraction of enteric smooth muscle, dilating peripheral blood vessels, stimulating pancreatic bicarbonate secretion, and inhibiting gastrin-stimulated gastric acid secretion. These effects work together to increase motility.
  • It also has the function of stimulating pepsinogen secretion by chief cells.
  • It is also found in the brain and some autonomic nerves. One region of the brain includes a specific area of the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), the location of the 'master circadian pacemaker'. The SCN coordinates daily timekeeping in the body and VIP plays a key role in communication between individual brain cells within this region. Further, VIP is also involved in synchronising the timing of SCN function with the environmental light-dark cycle. Combined, these roles in the SCN make VIP a crucial component of the mammalian circadian timekeeping machinery.
  • VIP helps to regulate prolactin secretion; it stimulates prolactin release in the domestic turkey.
  • It is also found in the heart and has significant effects on the cardiovascular system. It causes coronary vasodilation as well as having a positive inotropic and chronotropic effect. Research is being performed to see if it may have a beneficial role in the treatment of heart failure.
  • VIP provokes vaginal lubrication in normal women, doubling the total volume of lubrication produced in one study.
  • GH-RH is a member of the VIP family and stimulates Growth Hormone secretion in the anterior pituitary gland.

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