The intracellular content of cyclic GMP (cGMP) is known to mediate the effects of various vasodilating substances on glomerular mesangial cells. However, little is known about the role of soluble guanylate cyclase (SGC) in these cells in diabetes. We, therefore, investigated the changes in SGC activity as well as the cGMP content in rat mesangial cells (MC) cultured under high glucose or hypertonic conditions. The following results were obtained. 1. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP) (10(-4) M, 10min.) increased cyclic GMP (cGMP) content in MC from 8.17 +/- 0.99 pmol/mg protein to 981.6 +/- 86.3. 2. SNP (10(-4) M) stimulated SGC activity from 38.3 +/- 10.8 pmol cGMP formed/mg protein/10 minutes to 74.4 +/- 5.2. 3. In the coincubation experiment with bovine aortic endothelial cells, bradykinin (10(-6) M, 10min.) increased cGMP content in MC from 6.24 +/- 1.35 to 348.3 +/- 45.3. However, 4. the activity of SGC and SNP-induced increase of cGMP were not influenced by culturing MC in high glucose or hypertonic media. Similarly, the cGMP increase in MC coincubated with BAEC under bradykinin stimulation was not altered by culturing under high glucose or hypertonic conditions. These data suggested that SGC may play an important role in the regulation of cGMP content in MC. However, this enzyme may not be involved in the increase of cGMP content in MC cultured under high glucose condition.