The importance of the amino acid in position 27 of cholecystokinin in determining its biological activity on pancreatic acini.

We tested the synthetic C-terminal heptapeptide of cholecystokinin, which has the same biologic activity as cholecystokinin, and various synthetic analogs of the C-terminal heptapeptide for their abilities to increase amylase secretion from dispersed acini prepared from guinea-pig pancreas. We found that altering the chemical character of the amino acid in position 27 altered the potency with which the peptide stimulated amylase secretion but did not alter the efficacy of the peptide. We also found that, in the amino acid in position 27, the major function of the side-chain seems to be to position to the sulfate ester group at a proper distance from the backbone of the peptide chain, whereas the chemical structure of the side-chain per se seems to be of relatively minor importance.