SUMMARY Relationships among systolic blood pressure (SBP), plasma renin activity (PRA), arterial renin concentrations (ARC), and venous renin concentrations (VRC) were examined in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats before and after treatment with captopril. The ARC was elevated in SHR relative to WKY whereas VRC was not. Similarly, ARC was related to SBP (/• = 0.69, p < 0.01) whereas PRA was not (r = 0.04). Captopril (100 mg/kg daily by mouth for 8 days) decreased blood pressure significantly in both SHR and WKY. PRA as well as ARC and VRC were all increased by captopril. Bilateral nephrectomy virtually eliminated PRA but ARC was not significantly reduced over a 24-hour period. Bilateral nephrectomy also markedly attenuated the acute antihypertensive effects of captopril in SHR; however, a modest effect was still apparent. It is suggested that ARC in SHR, being higher than in WKY, may play a role in the genesis or maintenance of hypertension in this model. Furthermore, the effects of captopril in both intact and nephrectomized SHR may be related to the ability of captopril to inhibit the vascular formation of angiotensin II. Finally, vascular renin is probably not renal in origin and responds to typical feedback inhibition as unmasked by captopril administration. high plasma renin activity (PRA) such as acute twokidney renal hypertension, agents that interfere with the formation of, or receptor activation by, angiotensin II (All) are very effective in reducing blood pressure. Thus, renin inhibitors, ]~2 angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, 3 "* and All antagonists 9 have all been shown to either prevent the development of twokidney renal hypertension or reduce blood pressure shortly after the development of this form of hypertension. In chronic two-kidney one clip hypertension as well as one-kidney one clip and genetic hypertension, however, the relationship between PRA in the maintenance of hypertension and the antihypertensive effectiveness of inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system is no longer clear. Thus, All antibodies and receptor antagonists do not substantially reduce blood pressure in chronic one-or two-kidney one clip hypertension or in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) which are models that have normal or low PRA.