Human somatostatin receptor, SSTR2, is coupled to adenylyl cyclase in the presence of Gi alpha 1 protein

Somatostatin has been shown to exert diverse biological effects in various tissues. Recently, the human genes encoding five subtypes of Somatostatin Receptor (SSTR1-SSTR5) were cloned. Among these subtypes SSTR2 is present in many endocrine tumors as well as normal tissues and may mediate the effects of somatostatin analog, SMS201-995. In this study, we have investigated the intracellular effect of SSTR2 stably expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Somatostatin-14 does not affect the forskolin stimulated cAMP formation when human SSTR2 is expressed in CHO cells, which lack internal Gi alpha 1 protein. However, somatostatin-14 inhibits the adenylyl cyclase in a dose dependent and pertussis toxin-sensitive manner when human SSTR2 is co-expressed with Gi alpha 1 in CHO cells. These results indicate that human SSTR2 is functionally coupled to Gi alpha 1 protein but not to Gi alpha 2 or Gi alpha 3 when expressed in CHO cells.