Efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity (ERSNA) is elevated in human essential hypertension as well as several forms of experimental hypertension in animals. In addition, bilateral complete renal denervation delays the development and/or attenuates the magnitude of the hypertension in several different forms of experimental hypertension in animals. Efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity is known to have dose-dependent effects on renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate, renal tubular sodium and water reabsorption, and renin secretion rate that are capable of contributing, singly or in combination, to the development, maintenance, and exacerbation of the hypertensive state. Of the many factors known to influence the central nervous system integrative regulation of ERSNA, two environmental factors, dietary sodium intake and environmental stress, are capable of significant interaction. This resultant increase in ERSNA and subsequent renal functional alterations can participate in the hypertensive process. This is especially evident in the presence of an underlying genetic predisposition to the development of hypertension. Thus, interactions between environmental and genetic influences can produce alterations in the sympathetic neural control of renal function that play an important role in hypertension.