Chronic hypoxia causes remodeling and alters contractile responses in both pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins. Although pulmonary arteries have been studied extensively in these disorders, the mechanisms by which pulmonary veins respond to hypoxia and whether these responses contribute to chronic hypoxic pulmonary hypertension remain poorly understood. In pulmonary arterial smooth muscle, we have previously demonstrated that influx of Ca2+ through store-operated calcium channels (SOCC) thought to be composed of transient receptor potential (TRP) proteins is likely to play an important role in development of chronic hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. To determine whether this mechanism could also be operative in pulmonary venous smooth muscle, we measured intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+] i) by fura-2 fluorescence microscopy in primary cultures of pulmonary venous smooth muscle cells (PVSMC) isolated from rat distal pulmonary veins. In cells perfused with Ca2+-free media containing cyclopiazonic acid (10 μM) and nifedipine (5 μM) to deplete sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca 2+ stores and block voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels, restoration of extracellular Ca2+ (2.5 mM) caused marked increases in [Ca2+]i, whereas MnCl2 (200 μM) quenched fura-2 fluorescence, indicating store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE). SKF-96365 and NiCl2, antagonists of SOCC, blocked SOCE at concentrations that did not alter Ca2+ responses to 60 mM KCl. Of the seven known canonical TRP (TRPC1-7) and six vanilloid-related TRP channels (TRPV1-6), real-time PCR revealed mRNA expression of TRPC1>TRPC6>TRPC4> TRPC2 ≈ TRPC5 > TRPC3, TRPV2 > TRPV4 > TRPV1 in distal PVSMC, and TRPC1 > TRPC6 > TRPC3 > TRPC4 ≈ TRPC5, TRPV2 ≈ TRPV4 > TRPV1 in rat distal pulmonary vein (PV) smooth muscle. Western blotting confirmed protein expression of TRPC1, TRPC6, TRPV2, and TRPV4 in both PVSMC and PV. Our results suggest that SOCE through Ca2+ channels composed of TRP proteins may contribute to Ca2+ signaling in rat distal PV smooth muscle. Copyright © 2010 the American Physiological Society.