Changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), and vascular resistance (hindquarter and mesenteric territories) in response to electrical stimulation (ES) of the aortic depressor nerve (ADN) were evaluated in conscious freely moving rats. Platinum electrodes were implanted into the ADN of all rats studied, and some of these animals were also implanted with miniaturized Doppler probes around the superior mesenteric artery and inferior abdominal aorta (hindquarter). In both groups, the femoral artery and vein were catheterized one day before the experiments. In the first group of rats (n = 7), the control ES of the ADN in the range from 0.5 to 3.0 V (50 Hz, 10 ms) produced bradycardia and hypotension in an intensity-dependent manner, and treatment with methylatropine (intravenously) blocked the bradycardia but produced no significant changes in the hypotensive response. In a second group (n = 6), ES of the ADN was performed with the intensity fixed at 3 V and the frequency of the stimuli varying from 10 to 50 Hz. In this group, the hypotensive response was frequency dependent, whereas the bradycardic response was not. In a third group of rats (n = 6), ES of the ADN (2.5 V) produced hypotension (-35 +/- 4 mmHg), minor changes in the mesenteric (+5 +/- 14%), and vasodilation in hindquarter (-32 +/- 6%) vascular beds. The data show that 1) ES of the ADN produces a fall in pressure, bradycardia, vasodilation in the hindquarter, and no changes in the mesenteric vascular resistance, 2) methylatropine blocked the bradycardia and produced no effect on the hypotensive response to ES of the ADN, and 3) the baroreceptor afferent fibers involved in the hypotensive response to ES of ADN are sensitive to the variation of the frequency of the stimuli, whereas the fibers involved in the bradycardic response are not.