The steady-state behavior of the tubuloglomerular feedback system has been studied in detail, but little is known about its dynamics. However, kinetic data can provide insight regarding the contribution of feedback to autoregulatory responses. Accordingly, experiments were conducted in anesthetized, euvolemic, spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats to characterize the time course of changes in proximal tubular stop-flow pressure after step changes in the rate of orthograde perfusion of Henle's loop. We studied the responses both to increase in perfusion rate, which produced preglomerular vasoconstriction, and decreases in perfusion rate, which produced preglomerular vasodilation. In both strains, the pattern of induced stop-flow pressure transients consisted of a pure delay followed by a monoexponential decay to a new steady state. In SHR rats, delay times were shorter than in WKY rats, but response time constants were not significantly different in the two strains. However, response time constants for dilation were longer than for constriction in both strains. The delay times and relatively large response time constants observed indicate that tubuloglomerular feedback cannot mediate rapid autoregulatory responses to fluctuations in renal perfusion pressure. The response time of tubuloglomerular feedback is probably limited by both the time lag associated with fluid transit through the loop of Henle and a relatively slow rate-limiting step in the signal transduction process at the macula densa.