The metabolism of pyrimidine nucleotides was studied in non-contracting myocytes isolated from adult rat hearts and compared to that observed in freshly prepared myocardium. The myocytes were cultured for up to 96 hrs in a commercial medium containing 50 microM cytidine, uridine, adenosine and adenine; 20 microM guanosine, thymidine and D-ribose; and 5 microM hypoxanthine, xanthine, guanine, thymine and uracil. Nucleotide pool sizes were measured by HPLC. Nucleotide and RNA labelling were followed by incorporation of [U-14C]-cytidine or [U-14C]-uridine added in trace amounts to the medium. The adenine nucleotide pool was 2.4-fold larger than in situ after 7 hrs of incubation and then returned to values 30% higher than that found in the myocardium after 25 hrs. Cytosine and uracil nucleotide pools after 25 hrs of culture were respectively 2 and 4-fold larger than in situ and remained at these levels thereafter. Intracellular cytidylate and uridylate equilibrated very rapidly with exogenous [U-14C]-cytidine but not with [U-14C]-uridine. We conclude that, under the experimental conditions used here, the synthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides in isolated myocytes is mainly supplied by exogenous nucleosides. Furthermore, extracellular cytidine is rapidly converted to both uracil and cytosine nucleotides while uridine serves only as the precursor for uracil nucleotide synthesis.