Role of pylorus in mediating cholecystokinin-stimulated satiety in the Zucker rat.

Obese Zucker rats are less responsive than their lean littermates to the effects of cholecystokinin-octapeptide on satiety and pancreatic growth and exocrine function. We hypothesized that the hyperphagia observed in obese Zucker rats may be caused by a decreased pyloric contractile response to cholecystokinin, resulting in an increased rate of gastric emptying, decreased postprandial gastric distention, and thus decreased satiety. Pyloric muscle strips from six obese Zucker rats and six lean littermates were mounted in separate tissue baths and isometric contraction was measured in response to acetylcholine and cholecystokinin-octapeptide. The dose-response curves for acetylcholine- and cholecystokinin-octapeptide-stimulated pyloric muscle contraction were similar for both the obese and the lean rats. (For cholecystokinin, D50 obese = 4.0 +/- 0.6 nM, D50 lean = 3.4 +/- 0.2 nM; P = 0.16). We conclude that the decreased satiety response to cholecystokinin-octapeptide observed in obese Zucker rats is not secondary to a decreased pyloric responsiveness to cholecystokinin.