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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of atropine on peripheral vasodilation and the mechanisms involved. The isometric tension of rat mesenteric artery rings was recorded in vitro on a myograph. The results showed that atropine, at concentrations greater than 1 μM, relaxed the noradrenalin (NA)-precontracted rat mesenteric artery in a concentration-dependent manner. Atropine-induced vasodilation was mediated, in part, by an endothelium-dependent mechanism, to which endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor may contribute. Atropine was able to shift the NA-induced concentration-response curve to the right, in a non-parallel manner, suggesting the mechanism of atropine was not mediated via the α1-adrenoreceptor. The β-adrenoreceptor and ATP sensitive potassium channel, a voltage dependent calcium channel, were not involved in the vasodilatation. However, atropine inhibited the contraction derived from NA and CaCl2 in Ca2+-free medium, in a concentration dependent manner, indicating the vasodilatation was related to the inhibition of extracellular Ca2+ influx through the receptor-operated calcium channels and intracellular Ca2+ release from the Ca2+ store. Atropine had no effect on the caffeine-induced contraction in the artery segments, indicating the inhibition of intracellular Ca2+ release as a result of atropine most likely occurs via the IP3 pathway rather than the ryanodine receptors. Our results suggest that atropine-induced vasodilatation is mainly from artery smooth muscle cells due to inhibition of the receptor-mediated Ca2+-influx and Ca2+-release, and partly from the endothelium mediated by EDHF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]