AIM: To investigate the effect of rhubarb on contractile response of isolated gallbladder muscle strips from guinea pigs and its mechanism.METHODS: Guinea pigs were killed to remove the whole gallbladder. Two or three smooth muscle strips (8 mm×3mm) were cut along the longitudinal direction. The mucosa on each strip was carefully removed. Each longitudinal muscle strip was suspended in a tissue chamber containing 5 mL Krebs solution (37 ℃), bubbled continuously with 950 mL/L O2 and 50 mL/L CO2. The resting tension (g), mean contractile amplitude (mm),and contractile frequency (waves/min) were simultaneously recorded on recorders. After 2-h equilibration, rhubarb (10, 20, 70, 200, 700, 1 000 g/L) was added cumulatively to the tissue chamber in turns every 2 min to observe their effects on gallbladder.Antagonists were given 3 min before administration of rhubarb to investigate the possible mechanism.RESULTS: Rhubarb increased the resting tension (from 0 to 0.40±0.02, P＜0.001), and decreased the mean contractile amplitude (from 5.22±0.71 to 2.73±0.41,P＜0.001). It also increased the contractile frequency of the gallbladder muscle strips in guinea pigs (from 4.09±0.46to 6.08±0.35, P＜0.001). The stimulation of rhubarb on the resting tension decreased from 3.98±0.22 to 1.58±0.12by atropine (P＜0.001), from3.98±0.22 to 2.09±0.19 by verapamil (P＜0.001) and from 3.98±0.22 to 2.67±0.43by phentolamine (P＜0.005). But the effect was not inhibited by hexamethonium (P＞0.05). In addition, the action of mean amplitude and frequency was not inhibited by the above antagonists.CONCLUSION: Rhubarb can stimulate the motility of isolated gallbladder muscle strips from guinea pigs. The stimulation of rhubarb might be relevant with M receptor,Ca2+ channel and α receptor partly.