There is evidence that atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) has an action in the inner medullary collecting duct. In addition, the prehypertensive Dahl salt-sensitive (S) rat has an intrinsic tendency toward less natriuresis than the Dahl salt-resistant (R) rat has when challenged with ANF. To test the hypothesis that renal papillary collecting tubule cells from prehypertensive S rats might be genetically less responsive to ANF, S and R cells were grown in culture and studied for responsiveness to ANF by measurement of cyclic nucleotide responses. There was a concentration-dependent effect of ANF on renal papillary collecting tubule cell synthesis of intracellular cyclic guanosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cGMP) in both strains. However, the S cells were hyporesponsive compared with the R cells (p less than 0.002, by analysis of variance). Likewise, in response to Na nitroprusside, the S cells were hyporesponsive compared with the R cells as measured by intracellular cGMP accumulation (p less than 0.03, by analysis of variance). Arginine vasopressin stimulated intracellular cAMP equally in both strains. Also, ANF equally enhanced intracellular cGMP in glomerular mesangial cells from S and R rats, indicating possible specificity of the reduced responsiveness to ANF to the distal nephron of S rats. Plasma ANF levels had a slight tendency to be higher in prehypertensive S rats than in R rats (p = 0.088, by t test). These results suggest that the papillary collecting duct of Dahl S and R rats may differ in guanylate cyclase activity. This difference may partially explain the impaired natriuretic responses of S rats and could represent a factor contributing to the development of salt-sensitive hypertension.