James Black Foundation, 68 Half Moon Lane, Dulwich, London SE24 9JE, England 1 The previously described complex behaviour of the CCK B /gastrin receptor antagonist, L-365,260, in radioligand binding assays could be explained by a variable population of two binding sites. We have investigated whether other CCK B /gastrin receptor ligands (PD134,308, PD140,376, YM022 and JB93182) can distinguish between these sites. 2 In the mouse cortex assay, Hill slopes were not dierent from unity and the ligand pK I values did not dier when either [
I]-BH-CCK-8S or [3 H]-PD140,376 was used as label as expected for a single site (G 2 ). 3 In the rat cortex, where previous analysis of replicate (n=48) L-365,260 data indicated the presence of two CCK B /gastrin sites (G 1 and G 2 ), the competition data for PD134,308, PD140,376, YM022 and JB93182 could be explained by a homogeneous population of CCK B /gastrin sites because the Hill slope estimates were not signi®cantly dierent from unity. However, the estimated anity values for JB93182 and YM022 were signi®cantly higher and that for PD134,308 was signi®cantly lower than those obtained in the mouse cortex when the same radioligand was used. In view of our previous data obtained with L-365,260, the rat cortex data were also interpreted using a two-site model. In this analysis, SR27897 expressed *9 fold, PD134,308 *13 fold and PD140,376 *11 fold selectivity for the G 2 site. In contrast, JB93182 expressed *23 fold and YM022 *4 fold selectivity for the G 1 site. If the two-site interpretation of the data is valid then, because of its reverse selectivity to L-365,260, JB93182 has been identi®ed as a compound which if radiolabelled could provide a test of this receptor subdivision.