To determine the relative roles of cardiac and sinoaortic baroreceptors in mediation of arginine vasopressin (AVP) release, hemorrhage was performed in five groups of conscious splenectomized dogs: 1) all nerves intact; 2) either chronic surgical or acute pharmacological (intrapericardial lidocaine) cardiac denervation (CD); 3) chronic sinoarotic denervation (SAD); 4) combined chronic sinoartic denervation plus either chronic or acute cardiac denervation (SAD + CD); and 5) all nerves intact, but with ganglionic blockade. Hemorrhage (0.5 ml/min/kg) reduced mean arterial pressure similarly in the intact and CD groups. Decreases in mean arterial pressure were augmented in SAD, SAD + CD, and ganglion-blocked groups compared with responses in intact and CD groups. There were no differences in responses of plasma AVP to hemorrhage in the intact and CD groups, but the AVP response was significantly blunted in the SAD + CD group as compared with SAD alone. When compared during the early stage of hemorrhage, at the same reduction in mean arterial pressure, the rise in AVP was greater in the ganglion-blocked group than in the SAD + CD group, but was less than in the intact group. With a protocol to reduce mean arterial pressure by 20 mm Hg over the same period (42 +/- 0.6 minutes) in four of the groups, the blood volume required to reduce mean arterial pressure by 20 mm Hg was similar in the intact (20 +/- 1 ml/kg) and CD (21 +/- 1 ml/kg) groups, but was less in the SAD (12 +/- 1 ml/kg) and SAD + CD (12 +/- 1 ml/kg) groups. Again, similar increases were observed in AVP between the intact (50 +/- 9 pg/ml) and CD (51 +/- 9 pg/ml) groups, whereas increases in AVP were diminished in the SAD (11 +/- 3 pg/ml) and SAD + CD (7 +/- 2 pg/ml) groups. In the presence of an AVP antagonist, decreases in mean arterial pressure and increases in total peripheral resistance with hemorrhage were affected similarly in both the intact and CD groups, whereas hemodynamic impairment by AVP blockade was less marked in the SAD and SAD + CD groups. These results indicate that cardiac receptors are not the major regulators of AVP release during progressive hemorrhage in conscious dogs. However, when the complicating influences of sinoaortic reflexes were eliminated, a modest role for cardiac receptors was uncovered.