We determined whether pancreatic adaptation to a high-protein diet depends on ingested protein in the intestinal lumen and whether such adaptation depends on a CCK or capsaicin-sensitive vagal afferent pathway in pancreaticobiliary-diverted (PBD) rats. Feeding a high-casein (60%) diet but not a high-amino acid diet to PBD rats increased pancreatic trypsin and chymotrypsin activities compared with those after feeding a 25% casein diet. In contrast, feeding both the high-nitrogen diets induced pancreatic hypertrophy in PBD rats. These pancreatic changes by the diets were abolished by treatment with devazepide, a CCK-A receptor antagonist. Protease zymogen mRNA abundance in the PBD rat was not increased by feeding the high-casein diet and was decreased by devazepide. Perivagal capsaicin treatment did not influence the values of any pancreatic variables in PBD rats fed the normal or high-casein diet. We concluded that luminal protein or peptides were responsible for the bile pancreatic juice-independent induction of pancreatic proteases on feeding a high-protein diet. The induction was found to be dependent on the direct action of CCK on the pancreas. Pancreatic growth induced by high-protein feeding in PBD rats may depend at least partly on absorbed amino acids.