To study the role of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in cardiac function, we compared eNOS expression, contractility, and relaxation in the left ventricles of wild-type and eNOS-deficient mice. eNOS immunostaining is localized to the macro- and microvascular endothelium throughout the myocardium in wild-type mice and is absent in eNOS−/− mice. Whereas blood pressure is elevated in eNOS−/− mice, baseline cardiac contractility (dP/dt _max) is similar in wild-type and eNOS−/− mice (9,673 ± 2,447 and 9,928 ± 1,566 mmHg/s, respectively). The β-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol (Iso) at doses of ≥1 ng causes enhanced increases in dP/dt _max in eNOS−/− mice compared with wild-type controls in vivo (P < 0.01) as well as in Langendorff isolated heart preparations (P < 0.02). β-Adrenergic receptor binding (B_max) is not significantly different in the two groups of animals (B_max = 41.4 ± 9.4 and 36.1 ± 5.1 fmol/mg for wild-type and eNOS−/−). Iso-stimulated ventricular relaxation is also enhanced in the eNOS−/− mice, as measured by dP/dt _min in the isolated heart. However, baseline ventricular relaxation is normal in eNOS−/− mice (τ = 5.2 ± 1.0 and 5.6 ± 1.5 ms for wild-type and eNOS−/−, respectively), whereas it is impaired in wild-type mice after NOS inhibition (τ = 8.3 ± 2.4 ms). cGMP levels in the left ventricle are unaffected by eNOS gene deletion (wild-type: 3.1 ± 0.8 pmol/mg, eNOS−/−: 3.1 ± 0.6 pmol/mg), leading us to examine the level of another physiological regulator of cGMP. Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) expression is markedly upregulated in the eNOS−/− mice, and exogenous ANP restores ventricular relaxation in wild-type mice treated with NOS inhibitors. These results suggest that eNOS attenuates both inotropic and lusitropic responses to β-adrenergic stimulation, and it also appears to regulate baseline ventricular relaxation in conjunction with ANP.