Cells prepared from frog esophageal peptic glands by dispersal in low-Ca2+ medium (peptic acini) or 1 mM ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA)-containing medium ("EGTA cells") were compared. EGTA cells were characterized by decreased secretory responses to agonists [bombesin (BB), acetylcholine, and isoproterenol] and intracellular messenger activators (forskolin, 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate), decreased relative intrinsic efficacies of muscarinic agonists, and somatostatin insensitivity. Decreased BB and muscarinic receptor responses were not associated with changes in receptor number or characteristics. The time course of BB- and acetylcholine-stimulated pepsinogen secretion indicated that the marked reduction was confined largely to the late secretory phase (2-30 min), dependent on extracellular Ca2+, rather than early phase (less than 2 min) secretion, which is related to release of intracellular Ca2+. The defect could be reversed by the Ca2+ ionophore A23187. BB-stimulated intracellular Ca2+ mobilization measured with fura-2/AM was similar in the two cell preparations, whereas BB-stimulated 45Ca2+ uptake was reduced threefold in EGTA cells, and this defect was also reversed by A23187. Somatostatin inhibited both BB-stimulated secretion and 45Ca uptake by peptic acini, but it had no significant effect on these parameters in EGTA cells. Cytochalasin B inhibited BB stimulation in peptic acini but not EGTA cells. These findings suggest that peptic cells isolated with EGTA exhibit decreased secretory responses that are due at least in part to impairment of a mechanism for uptake of extracellular Ca2+.