We investigated the effect of the glucocorticoid methylprednisolone on the modulation of the expression of the bradykinin B2 receptors in cultured, guinea-pig, tracheal, smooth muscle cells. These receptors are implicated in the pathogenesis of human asthma. Untreated cells expressed a single population of binding sites for [3H]bradykinin with a dissociation constant, Kd, of 87.7+/-12.0 pM and a maximum binding site density, Bmax, of 245.4+/-71 fmol/mg protein. Treatment of the cultured guinea-pig tracheal smooth muscle cells with methylprednisolone 10(-5) M for 6 h increased the number of bradykinin receptors; this response reached a maximum of 78% and returned to the basal value after 12 h. Bradykinin (10(-12) M) elicited a six-fold higher calcium level in treated cells than in control cells. To investigate bradykinin B2 receptor mRNA expression in guinea-pig cells, we used the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique to synthesize a specific bradykinin B2 cDNA probe of 296 bp corresponding to nucleotides 456-751 of the human sequence. This guinea-pig cDNA had 88%, 86% and 83% homology with the corresponding human, mouse and rat sequences, respectively, but no homology with any other known sequences. Following methylprednisolone treatment, Northern blot hybridization indicated that mRNA increased fourfold after 3 h compared with control cells, and returned to basal level within 7 h. The rate of gene transcription, assessed by nuclear run-on assays, increased fourfold after 3 h treatment with 10(-5) M methylprednisolone. These results indicate that glucocorticoids induce early up-regulation of bradykinin B2 receptors in cultured guinea-pig tracheal smooth muscle cells by increasing the rate of transcription of the bradykinin B2 receptor gene.