CCK-8 decreases food intake and gastric emptying after pylorectomy or pyloroplasty.

Specific binding sites for cholecystokinin (CCK) in the gastrointestinal tract of the adult rat are limited to the gastroduodenal region and are concentrated in the circular muscle of the pyloric sphincter. To determine the relationship of these pyloric muscle binding sites to the inhibition by CCK of food intake and of gastric emptying, these inhibitory effects of CCK were investigated in rats that had the pyloric sphincter surgically removed or that had the pyloric sphincter contractile mechanism damaged by a pyloroplasty procedure. CCK-8 decreased food intake and gastric emptying significantly in rats after pylorectomy or pyloroplasty. This demonstrates that an intact pyloric sphincter is not necessary for these inhibitory effects in rats. Because we found autoradiographic evidence for CCK receptors near the gastroduodenal anastomosis, however, the results suggest either that these receptors mediated the inhibition of food intake and emptying by CCK-8 or that these effects depend on CCK receptors in other locations.