<正> In the paper

we review our preclinical and clinical studies on motilin （MTL） in recentyears.Our studies have demonstrated for the first time that MTL was widely distributed in hu-man body fluids

fetal cerebrospinal fluid and digestive tract and have revealed that both humanand rabbit Mo cells（MTL-secreting cells）did secret intracavitarily.The endogenous MTL hadan accelerating effect on small bowel transmit time.Wheaten food taking could inhibit the releaseof MTL into plasma

and acupuncturing in certain acupoints could promote its secretion.The ris-es of plasma MTL levels were found in patients with liver cirrhosis

pregnant hypertension syn-drome or in stress state.MTL levels in plasma and gastroduodenal juices of gastric cancer pa-tients were elevated significantly;MTL levels in plasma were decreased in patients with non-ul-cer dyspepsia

bile-regurgitational gastritis or leukemia.We also probed into the phys-iopathological significance of changes in MTL levels in other human body fluids.