SUMMARY Afferent arteriolar diameters, relative flow distribution, and flow conductance factors are estimated by nonlinear regression analysis of the sieving effect on microspheres in different vascular structures of the dog renal cortex. The data presented are from experiments in which microspheres of 10-30 fim were injected into the abdominal aorta during normotension and after lowering the blood pressure to the lower limit of autoregulation. Microscopic examination of the spheres trapped in the glomeruli and the renal arteries showed an increasing exclusion of microspheres greater than 15 fim from the afferent arterioles during normotension. This effect was most pronounced for the deeper cortical layers and can be explained mainly as geometrical exclusion of spheres from afferent arterioles. During hypotension, progressively larger microspheres entered glomeruli and afferent arterioles, presumably due to vasodilation of the vessels. There was a significant redistribution of microspheres larger than 15fim from the outer to the inner cortex during hypotension without a corresponding redistribution of smaller spheres or the estimated blood flow. Approximately the same degree of dilation of afferent arterioles was observed during autoregulatory hypotension in three cortical layers.IT IS commonly believed that the variation of the preglomerular vascular resistance during autoregulation takes place in the afferent arteriole. There is no direct evidence supporting this; neither hydrostatic pressure in this vessel nor its diameter has been measured during autoregulation. The autoregulatory changes in preglomerular vascular resistance may take place exclusively in the interlobular artery or in addition to the afferent arteriole.It also is not clear whether the variation in the preglomerular vascular resistance is identical in all of the so-called cortical layers. Lack of autoregulation in the inner medulla (dog)' and outer cortex (rat), 2 as well as identical autoregulation in all layers'' (dog), have been reported by measuring the local blood flow with various indirect methods.The intension of this study was to measure the variation in diameter of the afferent arteriole in the autoregulating dog kidney. For this purpose we used an original version of the microsphere method, the principle of which is to record the diameter population of the spheres which become trapped in (or pass through) the afferent arterioles and the population of sphere diameters presented to these vessels. 4 ' 5 Methods Mongrel dogs of either sex (body weight, 17-25 kg) were anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital (25 mg/kg given intravenously as an initial dose), and N 2 O was supplied by conventional anesthetic apparatus connected to an endotracheal tube. The arterial oxygen saturation, pH, and Pco 2 were within normal limits during the experFrom Medical Department A, University School of Medicine, Bergen, Norway.Address for reprints: Professor J. Ofstad, Medical Department A, University School of Medicine, 5016 Haukeland, Bergen, Norway.Receiv...