To evaluate the identity of the guanosine triphosphate--binding proteins coupling arginine vasopressin receptor occupancy with activation of phospholipase C, leading to Ca2+ mobilization, and activation of phospholipase A2, leading to arachidonate release and prostanoid formation, we used intact cells, saponin-permeabilized cells, and membranes of the rat mesangial cell. Arginine vasopressin 10(-7) mol/L produced a dose-dependent increase in cytosolic Ca2+ to maximal levels of 500 nmol/L with peak responses occurring within 10 seconds of addition of arginine vasopressin to cells in suspension. Arginine vasopressin 10(-7) mol/L elicited a maximal response. These increases were associated temporarily with a fourfold increase in tritiated D-myo-inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate formation in prelabeled cells. Pertussis toxin (200 ng/ml) did not inhibit the Ca2+ increase nor did it inhibit the increase in tritiated D-myo-inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate formation, suggesting a pertussis toxin--insensitive signaling pathway for phospholipase C hydrolysis in response to vasopressin. Membranes prepared from mesangial cells increased D-myo-inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate formation in vitro in response to arginine vasopressin and guanosine-5'-0(3- thiotrisphosphate), and this stimulation was inhibited by guanosine-5'-0(2-thiodiphosphate), confirming the involvement of a guanosine triphosphate--binding protein. In contrast arginine vasopressin stimulated arachidonate release from intact mesangial cells, and this effect was blocked by pretreating cells with pertussis toxin. To demonstrate that this was through a pertussis toxin--sensitive guanosine triphosphate--binding protein, we permeabilized cells with saponin and determined that arginine vasopressin and guanosine-5'-0(3-thiotriphosphate) stimulated the release of arachidonic acid and the stimulation of guanosine-5'-0(3-thiotriphosphate) was inhibited by guanosine-5'-0(2-thiodiphosphate). Finally, pertussis toxin was able to stimulate adenosine diphosphate ribosylation in vivo of a substrate protein in mesangial cell membranes of 41 kd, and this ribosylation was inhibited by pretreating cells with pertussis toxin. These data suggest that the release of arachidonic acid by vasopressin in glomerular mesangial cells is linked to a pertussis toxin--sensitive guanosine triphosphate--binding protein and that this activation of phospholipase C in vasopressin is linked to a pertussis toxin--insensitive guanosine triphosphate--binding protein.