1 This study aimed to investigate the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptors mediating contraction of ring preparations isolated from human pulmonary arteries and veins. In functional studies, the responses to 5-HT, sumatriptan, ergotamine, serotonin-O-carboxymethyl-glycyl-tyrosinamide (SCMGT), a-methyl 5-HT (a-Me) and 2-methyl 5-HT (2-Me) were studied with WAY100635, GR127935, ritanserin, zacopride and SB204070 as antagonists. 2 All agonists produced concentration-dependent contractions of human pulmonary artery and vein preparations. The order of potency (7log EC 50 values) was ergotamine (6.88)45-HT (6.41)5SCMGT (6.20)=sumatriptan (6.19) 5a-Me (6.04) in the artery, and ergotamine (7.84)45-HT (6.96)4suma-triptan (6.60)=a-Me (6.56)4SCMGT (6.09) in the vein. The potency of each agonist, except for SCMGT, was greater in vein than in artery preparations. Contractile responses to 5-HT were similar in intact and endothelium-denuded preparations but responses to sumatriptan were enhanced in artery rings without endothelium. 3 GR127935 (1 nM to 0.5 mM) produced an unsurmountable antagonism of the response to 5-HT, sumatriptan, ergotamine and SCMGT. Ritanserin (1 nM to 1 mM) also reduced the maximum contractile responses to 5-HT, ergotamine and a-Me in artery and vein preparations without aecting those to sumatriptan and SCMGT. In endothelium-denuded preparations, surmountable antagonism of sumatriptan by GR127935 (in the presence of ritanserin) and of a-Me by ritanserin (in the presence of GR127935) allowed for the calculation of the apparent pK B values of GR127935 (9.17+0.11 in artery and 9.11+0.05 in vein) and ritanserin (8.82+0.09 in artery and 8.98+0.12 in vein). 4 WAY100635 (1 nM to 1 mM), zacopride (1 nM to 1 mM), or SB204070 (1 nM) did not signi®cantly alter the concentration-response curves for 5-HT, sumatriptan, ergotamine, SCMGT or 2-Me in human pulmonary artery or vein thus indicating that 5-HT 1A , 5-HT 3 and 5-HT 4 receptors are presumably not involved in the contractile response to these agonists. 5 Binding studies using selective radioligands for dierent 5-HT receptors could not detect the presence of 5-HT 1A receptor binding in human pulmonary blood vessels whereas the 5-HT 1B/1D radioligand [ 3 H]-5-CT signi®cantly labelled a population of speci®c binding sites in both vessel types. The presence of 5-HT 2A receptors could also be inferred from the level of binding of [ 3 H]-ketanserin to membranes obtained from human pulmonary vessels, although signi®cance could not be reached for arteries. 5-HT 4 speci®c receptor binding was scarce in veins and absent in the case of arteries. 6 These ®ndings indicate that the human pulmonary artery and vein have a mixed functional population of 5-HT 1B/1D and 5-HT 2A receptors mediating the contractile response to 5-HT which is consistent with results of the binding studies.