Somatostatin Receptor Antibody Explorer Kit

Somatostatin is a small cyclic peptide that is widely expressed throughout the central nervous system and peripheral tissues.¹ In peripheral tissues, somatostatin exerts inhibitory effects on secretion processes, whereas in the brain it acts as a neurotransmitter in both stimulatory and inhibitory manner.^{1, 2}

Somatostatin mediates its action via six high affinity G-protein coupled receptors (SSTR1, SSTR2a, SSTR2b, SSTR3, SSTR4 and SSTR5) which are encoded by five genes.^1,2 Expression of the different receptors is developmentally regulated in a time and tissue-specific manner.² Somatostatin receptors have been found on a variety of neuroendocrine tumors, such as paragangliomas, carcinoids and breast tumors.³ Synthetic peptide derivatives of somatostatin have been successfully used in the treatment of neuroendocrine malignancies and in in vivo imaging of tumors that are positive to somatostatin receptors.⁴