We investigated the role of intracellular calcium in epithelial cell volume regulation using cells isolated from the toad urinary bladder. A suspension of cells was prepared by treatment of the bladder with collagenase followed by ethyleneglycol-bis(beta-aminoethylether)-N,N'-tetraacetic acid. The cells retained their ion-transporting capabilities: ouabain (1 mM) and amiloride (10 microM) inhibited cellular uptake of 86Rb and 22Na, respectively. Using a Coulter counter to measure cellular volume, we found that we could swell cells either by reducing the extracellular osmolality or by adding the permeant solute urea (45 mM) isosmotically. Under both conditions, cells first swelled and then returned to their base-line volume, in spite of the continued presence of the stimulus to swell. Volume regulation was inhibited when cells were swelled at low extracellular [Ca] (100 nM) and was retarded in cells preloaded with the calcium buffer quin 2. Swelling increased the intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca]i), as measured by quin 2 fluorescence: [Ca]i increased 35 +/- 9 nM (n = 6) after hypotonic swelling and 42 +/- 3 nM (n = 3) after urea swelling. Reducing extracellular [Ca] to less than 100 nM prevented the swelling-induced increase in [Ca]i, suggesting that the source of the increase in [Ca]i was extracellular. This result was confirmed in measurements of cellular uptake of 45Ca: the rate of uptake was significantly higher in swollen cells compared with control (1.1 +/- 0.2 vs. 0.4 +/- 0.1 fmol . cell-1 X 5 min-1). Our experiments provide the first demonstration that cellular swelling increases [Ca]i. This increase is likely to play a critical role in cellular volume regulation.