Abstract-We investigated the effect of amrinone, a non-glycosidic, non-adrenergic cardiotonic drug, on rabbit aortic strips and vascular smooth muscle cells cultured from rabbit aorta. Amrinone relaxed the strips precontracted by KCI, norepinephrine, serotonin or STA2 in a dose-dependent manner, and it shifted the dose-response curves downward.A similar mode of relaxation was noted with IBMX, an inhibitor of cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase (cAMPPDE). Although propranolol did not affect the relaxation induced by amrinone, W-7, a calmodulin antagonist, slightly potentiated and IBMX attenuated the response.In intact smooth muscle cells in culture, amrinone increased basal levels of cAMP and markedly potentiated cAMP accumulation in response to 10-6 M isoproterenol. The effect on cAMP accumu lation mimicked that of IBMX but the effects were not additive.Inhibition of cAMPPDE was also demonstrated in a cell-free system, IC50 values for amrinone and IBMX being 2