Development of an enriched cultured cell system allowed us to investigate the mechanism of cholinergic inhibition of somatostatin release stimulated by adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) and Ca2+-protein kinase C-dependent pathways of cell activation. After a 24-h culture on rat tail collagen, D-cells, quantified by immunohistochemistry, were 18-fold enriched compared with unelutriated dispersed cells. Somatostatin release from cultured cells was expressed as a percent of the somatostatin released by a specific stimulus in control cells. Under basal conditions release of somatostatin was 2.3 +/- 0.6% of the total cell content. Epinephrine (1 microM) and cholecystokinin octapeptide (10 nM) increased somatostatin release to 6.98 +/- 1.25 and 10.72 +/- 1.64%, respectively. Carbachol (1 microM) completely inhibited somatostatin release stimulated by epinephrine and reduced cholecystokinin octapeptide-stimulated release to 75% of control levels. Carbachol inhibition of the response to both epinephrine and cholecystokinin octapeptide was totally prevented by 5 h of treatment of the cells with pertussis toxin (300 ng/ml). Somatostatin release in response to the diterpene forskolin (10 microM), dibutyryl cAMP (300 microM), the phorbol ester beta-phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (0.1 microM), and the calcium ionophore A23187 (1 microM) was also inhibited by carbachol and prevented by pertussis toxin pretreatment. The ADP-ribosylase inhibitor isonicotinamide (1 mM) selectively blocked the effect of pertussis toxin without altering other stimulatory or inhibitory responses. These data are consistent with the view that carbachol inhibits somatostatin release at guanyl nucleotide-binding protein and/or another pertussis toxin-sensitive site.