Human, rabbit and rat aortic smooth muscle cells (hSMC, rSMC and A10 cells, respectively) were cultured with cadmium chloride and compared with human Chang liver cells to characterize the response of vascular smooth muscle cells to the metal. It was revealed that all tested vascular smooth muscle cells were markedly more sensitive to cadmium cytotoxicity than Chang liver cells. Cadmium accumulated more markedly in vascular smooth muscle cells than in Chang liver cells. After exposure to cadmium, metallothionein was induced in a concentration-dependent manner in Chang liver cells, it was constitutively high in hSMC, sensitively induced in rSMC and was constitutively low and induced within narrow limits in A10 cells. The intracellular content of reduced glutathione was greater and significantly enhanced by cadmium only in A10 cells. The present data suggest that vascular smooth muscle cells are, in general, sensitive to cadmium cytotoxicity without any species-related differences, mainly due to a higher accumulation of the metal within cells.