Enterostatin, a pentapeptide released from the exocrine pancreas and gastrointestinal tract, selectively inhibits fat intake through activation of an afferent vagal signaling pathway. This study investigated if the effects of enterostatin were mediated through a CCKdependent pathway. The series of in vivo and in vitro experiments included studies of 1) the feeding effect of peripheral enterostatin on Otsuka Long Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats lacking CCK-A receptors, 2) the effect of CCK-8S on the intake of a two-choice high-fat (HF)/low-fat (LF) diet, 3) the effects of peripheral or central injection of the CCK-A receptor antagonist lorglumide on the feeding inhibition induced by either central or peripheral enterostatin, and 4) the ability of enterostatin to displace CCK binding in a 3T3 cell line expressing CCK-A receptor gene and in rat brain sections. The results showed that OLTEF rats did not respond to enterostatin (300 g/kg ip) in contrast to the 23% reduction in intake of HF diet in Long Evans Tokushima Otsuka (LETO) control rats. CCK (1 g/kg ip) decreased the intake of the HF diet in a two-choice diet regime with a compensatory increase in intake of the LF diet. Peripheral injection of lorglumide (300 g/kg) blocked the feeding inhibition induced by either near-celiac arterial or intracerebroventricular enterostatin, whereas intracerebroventricular lorglumide (5 nmol icv) only blocked the response to intracerebroventricular enterostatin but not to arterial enterostatin. Enterostatin did not bind on CCK-A receptors because neither enterostatin nor its analogs VPDPR and -casomorphin lorglumide; cholecystokinin-A receptor; near-celiac arterial; intracerebroventricular OVER THE LAST DECADE, we and others have published substantial evidence to suggest that enterostatin, the NH 2 -terminal pentapeptide derived from the procolipase precursor protein, will selectively inhibit the intake of dietary fat in rodent models given a choice of diets (7, 12-18, 23, 28, 29). The procolipase gene is expressed in the exocrine pancreas, the stomach and duodenal mucosa (29), and in specific brain regions (13). Enterostatin-like immunoreactivity has been identified at similar locations, suggesting that procolipase is processed to colipase and enterostatin in these other sites in addition to the exocrine pancreas (13, 39).Like other gut peptides, enterostatin appears to have both a peripheral and a central site of action. Peripherally, it appears that enterostatin acts within the gastroduodenal region to activate vagal fibers that communicate through the brain stem regions to hypothalamic and extrahypothalamic forebrain regions to effect food intake (12, 42). Stereotaxic injections suggest that the amygdala is the central site of action of enterostatin (17) and that the feeding response is modulated through a pathway that involves both paraventricular serotonergic activity in the hypothalamus (19, 48) and -opioid activity in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) (48). Despite evidence that -opioids displace enterostatin fr...