We sought to investigate the mechanism(s) by which the oxidant H2O2 stimulates Ca2+ release from mitochondria of bovine pulmonary vascular smooth muscle tissue and to test the hypothesis that hydroxyl radical is involved in this phenomenon. Treatment of the smooth muscle tissue with 1 mM H2O2 dramatically stimulated hydroxyl radical generation as measured by methane (CH4) production by GLC using dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) as the substrate. Pretreatment of the mitochondria with the hydroxyl radical scavanger dimethylthiourea (DMTU) prevented the increase in CH4 production caused by H2O2. In the absence of EGTA, H2O2 caused stimulation of Ca2+ release from mitochondria occurred with a lag time of about 4 min. Addition of EGTA to Ca2+ loaded mitochondria resulted an immediate loss of Ca2+ and that has been found to be augmented by H2O2. The release of Ca2+ by H2O2 did not appear to occur with concommitant increase in sucrose entry into, K+ release from, and swelling of mitochondria when the Ca2+ cycling was prevented by EGTA. These observations suggested that H2O2-mediated Ca2+ release from bovine pulmonary vascular smooth muscle tissue mitochondria occurred (i) through the involvement of hydroxyl radical; (ii) via specific pathway(s); and (iii) did not appear to happen primarily via nonspecific "pore' formation.