Antisera having a strong and strictly constant cross-reactivity for gut-GLI were raised in seven rabbits immunized with immunogen, a conjugate of BSA and des-Asn28, Thr29, Homoser27 -glucagon (CNBr-glucagon). All of the anti-CNBr-glucagon sera exhibited titer and affinity for glucagon sufficiently high enough to develop a sensitive radioimmunoassay. The relative crossreactivity of the antisera to gut-GLI was comparable to that of antiserum K-4023 which strongly crossreacted with gut-GLI. One of the anti-CNBr-glucagon sera, OAL-196, did not react with the glucagon 19-29 fragment at all. The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were 3.8-5.0 and 6.0-7.3%, respectively, in the radioimmunoassay system for total GLI in human plasma using OAL-196. The fasting plasma total GLI was 374 +/- 18 pg/ml. The plasma total GLI during 50 g oral glucose load in normal subjects increased significantly, whereas the plasma IRG level measured with the anti-glucagon 19-29 serum, OAL-123, assay system was lowered. In the gastrectomized subjects, plasma total GLI measured with the present assay system elicited a marked increase following an oral glucose load. These results suggest that the radioimmunoassay using anti-CNBr-glucagon sera will be useful in measuring plasma total GLI.