These studies were undertaken to characterize 1) the immunoreactive somatostatin (SS) forms found in the gastrointestinal lumen and 2) to assess the possible role of luminal SS on pancreatic exocrine function. Results indicate that different forms of SS are secreted into the rat gastric and duodenal lumen in proportions corresponding to their gastric and duodenal contents. Inhibition of diversion-stimulated pancreatic exocrine secretion by intraduodenal infusion of SS (SS-ID) is dose dependent with a maximal effective dose of 24 micrograms/kg-1h-1 for volume and 48 micrograms/kg-1h-1 for protein output. Infusion of supramaximal doses result in a loss of the inhibitory effect of SS-ID on both volume and protein outputs. Comparison between inhibition of pancreatic secretion by iv SS (SS-IV) and SS-ID indicates that SS-ID is about 20 times less potent than SS-IV in its inhibition of stimulated pancreatic exocrine secretion. Intraileal (SS-IL) infusion of SS at 48 micrograms/kg-1h-1 did not inhibit stimulated pancreatic secretion but was rather stimulatory possibly through the inhibition of putative ileal inhibitors. Likewise, passive immunization against circulating SS did not affect the inhibitory effects of SS-ID on pancreatic secretion. These data indicate that SS is secreted into the rat gastrointestinal lumen and that its infusion into the duodenal lumen inhibits stimulated pancreatic secretion in a dose-dependent fashion. The observation that SS-IL did not inhibit pancreatic secretion and that passive immunization against circulating SS did not affect the inhibitory effect of SS-ID suggest that the action of SS-ID on stimulated exocrine pancreatic secretion is probably indirect and may involve a duodenal signal, possibly an inhibition of endogenous release of cholecystokinin and/or secretin.