The somatostatin (SS), the SS mRNA, and the SS receptor contents were measured and compared in 25 human meningiomas. The SS tissue content, measured with radioimmunoassay, amounted to 2.89 +/- 0.82 pg/mg tissue (mean +/- SEM). The SS mRNA levels visualized by in situ hybridization using a 32P-labeled synthetic oligonucleotide probe were undetectable in all cases. SS receptors were measured with autoradiography using the octapeptide SS analogue 125I-204-090 as radioligand and were found to be present in high density in all meningiomas. For comparison, three SS-producing tumors, i.e., two human medullary thyroid carcinomas and one neuroendocrine gut tumor, were shown to have a high level of immunoreactive tissue SS, reaching, respectively, 2807, 401, and 22 pg/mg tissue, as well as moderate to high levels of SS mRNA detected with in situ hybridization. It can be concluded that meningioma tissue is not synthesizing significant amounts of SS in situ and that the low amount of tissue SS found in these tumors is likely to be due to SS transported there from a distant source, via blood, cerebrospinal fluid, or axons from nerve fibers terminating in this tissue. The high number of SS receptors found in meningiomas is therefore unlikely to be regulated by an autocrine SS production from the meningioma tissue itself but rather from another, unknown distant SS source.