The effects of methylene blue on vascular tone and the responses to pressor and depressor substances were investigated in the constricted feline pulmonary vascular bed under conditions of controlled blood flow and constant left atrial pressure. When tone was elevated with U46619, intralobar injections of acetylcholine, bradykinin, nitroglycerin, isoproterenol, epinephrine, and 8-bromoguanosine-3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (8-bromo-cGMP) dilated the pulmonary vascular bed. Intralobar infusions of methylene blue elevated lobar arterial pressure without altering base-line left atrial or aortic pressure, heart rate, or cardiac output. When methylene blue was infused in concentrations that raised lobar arterial pressure to values similar to those attained during U46619 infusion, the pulmonary vasodilator responses to acetylcholine, bradykinin, and nitroglycerin were reduced significantly, whereas vasodilator responses to isoproterenol, epinephrine, and 8-bromo-cGMP were not altered. Moreover, the pressor responses to angiotensin II and BAY K 8644 during U46619 infusion and during methylene blue infusion were similar. The enhancing effects of methylene blue on vascular tone and inhibiting effects of this agent on responses to acetylcholine, bradykinin, and nitroglycerin were reversible. These responses returned to control value when tone was again increased with U46619, 30-45 min after the methylene blue infusion was terminated. The present data are consistent with the hypothesis that cGMP may play a role in the regulation of tone in the feline pulmonary vascular bed and in the mediation of vasodilator responses to the endothelium-dependent vasodilators, acetylcholine and bradykinin, and to nitrogen oxide-containing vasodilators such as nitroglycerin.