Isoflurane-anesthetized newborn pigs were used to test the hypothesis that nitric oxide mediates autoregulatory dilations of retinal arterioles. Fundus images were monitored by videomicroscopy at x310, and stimulus-induced changes in retinal arteriolar diameter were measured by on-line image analysis. Dilatative responses to systemic hypoxia (arterial O2 tension 20-30 mmHg), hypotension (mean arterial blood pressure 40 mmHg), or hypercapnia (arterial CO2 tension 70-85 mmHg) were assessed after intravitreal microsuffusion of the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA) over the observed arterioles. Twenty-five nanomoles L-NMMA constricted arterioles by 24 +/- 2% (P < 0.01; n = 17 pigs); a significant constriction (14 +/- 2%) was still observed 80 min after drug administration (n = 5). Complete nitric oxide synthase inhibition at this dose was indicated by the findings that co-administration of 2.5 mumol L-arginine reversed this constriction within 17 +/- 2 min (n = 3), that L-NMMA, but not D-NMMA, completely inhibited the 20 +/- 3% P < 0.01) arteriolar dilation induced by intravitreal acetylcholine (7.5 nmol; n = 4), and that no additional constriction was evidenced after administration of a 10-fold greater concentration of L-NMMA (n = 8). However, despite the prominent arteriolar constriction induced by L-NMMA under baseline conditions, increases in retinal arteriolar diameter still occurred in response to hypoxia (n = 5), hypotension (n = 4), or hypercapnia (n = 5) in animals pretreated with 50 nmol L-NMMA; these responses did not differ significantly from arteriolar dilations observed in untreated control animals (n = 16) subjected to the same stimuli.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)