The role of renal nerves in mediating renal hemodynamics and renal function during normal physiological conditions and following moderate hypoxemia was studied in chronically catheterized fetal lambs (125-141 days of gestation) following unilateral renal denervation. Base-line values for renal blood flow (RBF), renal vascular resistance (RVR), glomerular filtration rate (GFR), urinary flow rate (UFR), urinary electrolyte (Na+, K+, and Cl-) excretion rate, and urine osmolality (Uosm) were similar in both intact and denervated kidneys. Hypoxemia was associated with a significant rise in mean arterial blood pressure and a significant decrease in heart rate. Hypoxemia produced a similar decrease in GFR and similar increases in urinary Na+ and Cl- excretion rates in both intact and denervated kidneys. However, the effect of hypoxemia on renal hemodynamics differed between intact and denervated kidneys. Hypoxemia produced a continuous and progressive decrease in RBF and increase in RVR in the intact kidney. On the other hand, renal denervation was associated with an early renal vasodilation and attenuated the reduction in RBF and the rise in RVR during hypoxemia; this early renal vasodilation was blunted following prostaglandin synthesis inhibition. Taken together, these results suggest that fetal renal denervation is not associated with significant changes in renal hemodynamics or renal function during normal physiological conditions but that renal denervation partially inhibited the renal vasoconstriction associated with fetal hypoxemia. Finally, it was found that endogenous prostaglandins counteract the renal vasoconstriction associated with fetal hypoxemia.