The complexes between the polyaminocarboxylate DOTA ligand and the whole series of stable lanthanide(III) metal ions, except Gd3+, were studied in aqueous solution by O-17 NMR. For all of the paramagnetic systems, the O-17 NMR signals of both the nonchelating (O-1) and chelating (O-2) oxygen atoms could be detected, and for some of them, the signals of both the SAP and TSAP (TSAP') conformational isomers were also observed. Line width data analysis reveals that signal broadening is not dominated by paramagnetic relaxation enhancement, as it was believed to be. The data indicate that quadrupole relaxation and, for some complexes, chemical exchange between the SAP and TSAP isomers are the major contributions to the O-17 NMR line width at 25 degrees C. Besides, the Fermi contact and pseudocontact contributions to the observed lanthanide-induced shifts could be extracted. The O-17 hyperfine coupling constants determined for O-2 in the SAP and TSAP isomers are similar to each other and to the values reported for several Gd(III) complexes comprising fast-exchanging ligands. Interestingly, the results suggest that O-17 NMR should prove to be useful for the study of highly paramagnetic Gd(III) complexes of nonlabile ligands.