The purpose of these experiments was to study the possible contribution of bradykinin to normal blood pressure maintenance. The bradykinin analogue B4146, a competitive antagonist-partial agonist of bradykinin, was used in three groups of normotensive unanesthetized Wistar rats. Two intra-aortic injections of B4146 (1 mg in 0.2 ml of dextrose) were given 5 minutes apart (i.e., well after return of blood pressure to baseline, which occurred within 68 +/- 19 seconds). One group had been pretreated with the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor HOE 498, 1 mg/kg (Hoechst), and one received only dextrose as the first injection to serve as controls. The bradykinin antagonist produced an average increase in mean arterial pressure of approximately 13 mm Hg for all groups. In five animals, however, the first injection of B4146 produced a hypotensive effect, whereas the second one consistently produced a rise in blood pressure. Pretreatment with the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor did not affect the magnitude of the subsequent blood pressure increase in response to B4146. Since smaller doses of B4146, sufficient to block exogenous bradykinin, do not cause changes in normal blood pressure, we conclude that endogenous bradykinin does contribute to normal blood pressure maintenance, but its effect can be demonstrated only if very high doses of its antagonist are injected, maybe because a high concentration of the compound is necessary to displace not only circulating but possibly tissue receptor-bound bradykinin as well.