Recent reports have suggested that only some of the cloned somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) are coupled to adenylyl cyclase. These studies have used both stable and transiently transfected cells or cells lacking appropriate Gi alpha and are controversial. To investigate SSTR signalling mechanisms, we have established stably transfected CHO-K1 cells expressing human genes for SSTR1-5. The effect of 0.1-100 nM SST-14 and SST-28 on forskolin (1 microM) stimulated cAMP accumulation was determined and compared to their receptor binding affinities. The 5 expressed hSSTRs bound SST-14 and SST-28 with high affinity (IC50 1.1-2.1 nM for SST-14; IC50 0.25-5.4 nM for SST-28). hSSTR1-4 bound SST-14 > SST-28 whereas hSSTR5 bound SST-28 > SST-14. Radioligand binding to hSSTR1-5 was significantly inhibited by GTP, GTP gamma S and pertussis toxin. Both SST-14 and SST-28 inhibited forskolin-induced cAMP stimulation with ED50 values which paralleled their binding affinities for the individual hSSTR subtypes. These results demonstrate that all 5 human SSTRs are functionally coupled to inhibition of adenylyl cyclase in CHO-K1 cells via pertussis toxin sensitive G proteins.