A cholecystokinin receptor (CCKAR) antagonists differing in blood-brain barrier permeability were used to test the hypothesis that duodenal delivery of protein, carbohydrate, and fat produces satiety in part by an essential CCK action at CCKARs located peripheral to the blood-brain barrier. Fasted rats with open gastric fistulas received devazepide (1 mg/kg iv) or A-70104 (700 nmol ⅐ kg Ϫ1 ⅐ h Ϫ1 iv) and either a 30-min intravenous infusion of CCK-8 (10 nmol ⅐ kg Ϫ1 ⅐ h Ϫ1 ) or duodenal infusion of peptone, maltose, or Intralipid beginning 10 min before 30-min access to 15% sucrose. Devazepide penetrates the blood-brain barrier; A-70104, the dicyclohexylammonium salt of N␣-3-quinolinoyl-D-Glu-N,N-dipentylamide, does not. CCK-8 inhibited sham feeding by ϳ50%, and both A-70104 and devazepide abolished this response. Duodenal infusion of each of the macronutrients dose dependently inhibited sham feeding. A-70104 and devazepide attenuated inhibitory responses to each macronutrient. Thus endogenous CCK appears to act in part at CCKARs peripheral to the blood-brain barrier to inhibit food intake. receptor antagonist; devazepide; A-70104; satiety CCK is a peptide that is found throughout the brain and in neurons and endocrine cells of the gastrointestinal tract. Studies demonstrating that type A CCK receptor (CCKAR) antagonists stimulate food intake in a variety of species provide compelling evidence that CCK plays an essential role in producing the satiation that occurs with ingestion of a meal (6,13,14,23,39,48). The popular hypothesis is that CCK, secreted from enteroendocrine cells in the upper small intestine in response to duodenal delivery of nutrients, acts through paracrine stimulation of intestinal vagal sensory neurons to inhibit food intake. This hypothesis is supported by studies demonstrating the existence of CCK-secreting endocrine cells in the epithelium of the upper small intestine (7, 60), CCKARs within vagal afferent nerves (40, 66), activation of intestinal vagal afferent neurons by exogenous and endogenous CCK (17,20,31), and similar attenuation by CCKAR antagonists and vagal neural lesions of anorexic responses to exogenous CCK and nutrient administration (51).Several lines of evidence suggest that this mechanism is not the only one by which CCK produces satiety. For example, we and others have demonstrated that systemic administration of the CCKAR antagonist devazepide can increase food intake in rats whether or not they are vagotomized (45) or pretreated with capsaicin to lesion visceral sensory nerves (52). CCKAR antagonists reported not to cross the bloodbrain barrier [2-naphthalenesulfonyl-L-aspartyl-2-(phenethyl)-amide (25) and A-70104 (64)] have also been reported to have no effect on food intake in rats (22) or pigs (4, 24) when administered systemically under the same conditions in which devazepide stimulates food intake (22, 23). Because CCK does not readily penetrate the blood-brain barrier (41), these results suggest that endogenous CCK may also be acting as a neurotransmitter or neuro...