Although glucagon exerts positive inotropic effects in patients with no or mild impairment of cardiac function, similar effects are not consistently observed in patients with chronic heart failure. Accordingly, the inotropic effects of glucagon on papillary muscles from normal cats and cats in which right ventricular failure had been produced for 4-145 days by pulmonary artery banding were compared. At the peak of the concentration-response curve, glucagon increased peak isometric tension (T) in normal muscles from 4.4±0.4 to 6.6±0.5 g/mm² (P <0.001), and maximum rate of tension development (dT/dt) from 16.9±0.9 to 25.1±1.6 g/sec per mm² (P < 0.001). In contrast, glucagon produced no significant increases in T or dT/dt in failure muscles. The percentage increases in T and dT/dt caused by norepinephrine were the same in muscles from normal and failing hearts. Since the cardiac effects of glucagon and norepinephrine may be mediated by adenyl cyclase, responsiveness of adenyl cyclase was determined in particulate fractions of the right ventricle. Glucagon activated adenyl cyclase in normal, but had no effect in failure preparations. Norepinephrine-induced activation of adenyl cyclase, however, was unaltered by failure. Thus, in contrast to norepinephrine, glucagon loses the capacity to augment myocardial contractility and activate adenyl cyclase in hearts derived from cats in chronic failure.