When secreted into the vascular lumen, endothelin-1 (ET-1) potentially may act as a circulating pressor substance. We investigated whether luminal ET-1 can directly stimulate smooth muscle in isolated vascular segments. Rabbit femoral arteries and veins whose luminal and adventitial surfaces could be perfused separately were used. Luminally administered ET-1 (1 nM) induced a vasoconstriction (21 +/- 5% of outer resting diameter) in segments without endothelium whereas in segments with intact endothelium, no significant vasomotor response was observed. In segments without endothelium, however, the vasoconstrictor responses to luminal and abluminal ET-1 were not significantly different. Similar results were obtained in segments of femoral veins. No release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) could be detected (guanylate cyclase assay) in segments of rabbit aorta and vena cava following stimulation with ET-1 whereas there was a slight increase (by 20 +/- 13%) of PGI2 release. It is concluded that the endothelium forms a tight barrier to circulating ET-1 (up to 1 nM) in intact vessels that has no functionally significant effect on endothelial autacoid release.