Previous studies have shown that hormonal activation of the Cl- conductance in pancreatic zymogen granules (ZG) is closely related to enzyme secretion from acinar cells. We have now examined the role of guanine nucleotides in stimulated and unstimulated protein secretion from isolated digitonin-permeabilized pancreatic acini and in the Cl- conductance of isolated ZG. Protein secretion from permeabilized isolated acini, measured at 0.1 mM Ca2+, increased with increasing cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8) concentrations and decreased at high CCK-8 concentrations. The maximum secretion, approximately twice the control level, was reached at 1 nM CCK-8. The CCK analog, CCK JMV-180, which supposedly acts as an agonist on high-affinity CCK receptors and as an antagonist on low-affinity CCK receptors, stimulated maximum enzyme secretion at a CCK JMV-180 concentration of 0.1 microM and no decrease in secretion was observed at higher CCK JMV-180 concentrations, 0.1 mM guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate (GTP [S]) also increased the protein release by approximately twice that of the control and shifted the CCK-8 concentration causing maximum stimulation from 1 nM to 0.01 nM. GTP[S] concentrations greater than 0.1 mM inhibited protein release evoked by an optimal concentration of 1 nM CCK-8, 0.1 mM GTP[S] had no pronounced effect on the protein secretion stimulated by low concentrations of CCK JMV-180, but inhibited protein secretion evoked by CCK JMV-180 concentrations greater than 0.1 microM. This indicates that guanosine-nucleotide-binding proteins [G protein(s)] coupling to CCK receptors also mediate both CCK-induced increases and CCK-induced decreases of enzyme secretion at low and high CCK concentrations, respectively. ZG were prepared on a Percoll gradient from CCK-8-stimulated or CCK-JMV-180-stimulated and unstimulated acini. Their Cl- conductances were estimated in the absence of Ca2+ and in the presence of 1 mM EGTA from the rate of decrease in absorbance following addition of the K+ ionophore valinomycin as a measure of ZG osmotic lysis. The Cl- conductance in ZG from CCK-8-stimulated and CCK-JMV-180-stimulated acini was maximally activated at 1 pM and 10 nM respectively. At higher agonist concentrations, Cl- conductance was decreased. Direct addition of 10 microM GTP[S] to isolated ZG from unstimulated acini increased the rate of lysis by approximately 40% of the control value. This effect was approximately additive to that of CCK-8 or of CCK JMV-180 prestimulation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)