Effects of all-trans retinoic acid on angiotensin II-induced myocyte hypertrophy. J Appl Physiol 92: 2162–2168, 2002. First published January 4, 2002; 10.1152/japplphysiol.01192.2001.-We used cultured neonatal rat cardiac myocytes to test the hypothesis that all-trans retinoic acid (atRA) may act to modulate ANG II actions in inducing myocyte hypertrophy. Our observations were as follows. 1) atRA (10-7 to～10-5M) inhibited ANG II-induced hyperplasia of fibroblasts in a dose-dependent manner. 2) Treatment of atRA attenuated the ANG II-induced increase in total cell protein content. 3) Treated with ANG II (10-7M) for 5 days, the cultured neonatal rat cardiac myocytes demonstrated an apparent accumulation of sarcomeric fiber proteins and Golgi's complex, as well as reorganization of the sarcomeric unit within individual myocytes. atRA (10-6M) treatment reduced the accumulation of contractile proteins and Golgi's complex without affecting the ANG II-induced reorganization of the sarcomeric unit. 4) atRA attenuated the ANG II-induced increase in intracellular Ca2+. Our results show that atRA inhibits some effects of ANG II on neonatal rat cardiac myocytes and suggest that atRA may be a therapeutic candidate for the prevention and therapy of cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling.