Regulation of blood glucose homeostasis is complex. Its major hormonal regulators include insulin, glucagon and somatostatin from the endocrine pancreas. Secretion of these hormones is controlled predominantly by the supply of nutrients in the circulation but also by nerve signals and other peptides. Thus, it is likely that peptides, released from cells of the gut or endocrine pancreas or from peptidergic nerves, affect glucose homeostasis by modulating the secretion of insulin, glucagon and somatostatin. When searching for novel gut peptides with such effects, diazepam binding inhibitor (DBI) was isolated from the porcine small intestine. By immunocytochemistry, DBI has been demonstrated to occur not only in the gut but also in endocrine cells of the pancreatic islets, namely in the somatostatin-producing D-cells in pig and man, and in the glucagon-producing A-cells in rat. Porcine DBI (pDBI; 10(-8)-10(-7) M) has been shown to suppress glucose-stimulated release of insulin from both isolated islets and perfused pancreas of the rat. Furthermore, secretion of insulin stimulated by either the sulfonylurea glibenclamide or the phosphodiesterase inhibitor 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX), was inhibited by the peptide. In contrast, arginine-induced release of insulin was unaffected by pDBI. Moreover, pDBI decreased arginine-induced release of glucagon from the perfused rat pancreas, whereas release of somatostatin was unchanged. Notably, rat DBI, structurally identical with rat acyl-CoA-binding protein, has also been demonstrated to inhibit glucose-stimulated release of insulin in the rat, both in vivo and in vitro. Long-term exposure of cultured fetal rat islets to pDBI (10(-8) M) significantly decreased the synthesis of DNA in islet cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)