1 Gastrin stimulates rat stomach ECL cells to secrete histamine and pacreastatin, a chromogranin A (CGA)-derived peptide. The present report describes the e ect of nine cholecystokinin 2 (CCK 2 ) receptor antagonists and one CCK 1 receptor antagonist on the gastrin-evoked secretion of pancreastatin from isolated ECL cells. 2 The CCK 2 receptor antagonists comprised three benzodiazepine derivatives L-740,093, YM022 and YF476, one ureidoacetamide compound RP73870, one benzimidazole compound JB 93182, one ureidoindoline compound AG041R and three tryptophan dipeptoids PD 134308 (CI988), PD135158 and PD 136450. The CCK 1 receptor antagonist was devazepide. 3 A preparation of well-functioning ECL cells (*80% purity) was prepared from rat oxyntic mucosa using counter-¯ow elutriation. The cells were cultured for 48 h in the presence of 0.1 nM gastrin; they were then washed and incubated with antagonist alone or with various concentrations of antagonist plus 10 nM gastrin (a maximally e ective concentration) for 30 min. Gastrin doseresponse curves were constructed in the absence or presence of increasing concentrations of antagonist. The amount of pancreastatin secreted was determined by radioimmunoassay. 4 The gastrin-evoked secretion of pancreastatin was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner. YM022, AG041R and YF476 had IC 50 values of 0.5, 2.2 and 2.7 nM respectively. L-740,093, JB93182 and RP73870 had IC 50 values of 7.8, 9.3 and 9.8 nM, while PD135158, PD136450 and PD134308 had IC 50 values of 76, 135 and 145 nM. The CCK 1 receptor antagonist devazepide was a poor CCK 2 receptor antagonist with an IC 50 of about 800 nM. 5 YM022, YF476 and AG041R were chosen for further analysis. YM022 and YF476 shifted the gastrin dose-response curve to the right in a manner suggesting competitive antagonism, while the e ects of AG041R could not be explained by simple competitive antagonism. pK B values were 11.3 for YM022, 10.8 for YF476 and the apparent pK B for AG041R was 10.4.