Abstract: To investigate the function of exogenous unsaturated fatty acids in hyposmotic membrane stretch enhancement of muscarinic current (ICCh) in antral circular smooth muscle cells of guinea pig, we recorded the membrane current with the conventional whole cell patch-clamp technique. ICCh elicited by 50 μmol/L carbachol (CCh) at the holding potential of -20 mV under isosmotic condition was taken as control. Hyposmotic membrane stretch increased ICCh to 226.0±21.0%. When the cells were pretreated with 5 μmol/L arachidonic acid (AA), linoleic acid (LA) or oleic acid (OA), ICCh was inhibited to 3.8±0.6%, 35.2±0.8% and 66.6±0.6% respectively. Hyposmotic membrane stretch increased ICCh to 106.0±2.5%, 173.2±6.8% and 222.1±11.0% of the control respectively. Five μmol/L AA inhibited hyposmotic membrane stretch-enhanced ICCh by 51.2±3.8%, while the control ICCh under isosmotic condition was inhibited by 96.2±1.6%. The results suggest that unsaturated fatty acids inhibited ICCh and the inhibitory effect is more significant when the unsaturation degree is increased. However, the unsaturated fatty acids are not involved in the increase of ICCh induced by hyposmotic membrane stretch.