The role of the baroreceptor mechanism in determining the relationship between fluid volume and arterial pressure is not clear. Therefore, the effects of the baroreflex on the arterial pressure and fluid volume of conscious, anephric dogs were studied after a sustained 10% increase in blood volume. The animals were equipped with long-term indwelling arterial and venous catheters, and arterial pressure was monitored 24 hours a day. The increase in blood volume was achieved by intravenous infusion of 50 ml/kg of lactated Ringer's solution in 30 minutes. After volume loading arterial pressure increased rapidly to hypertensive levels (130.8 +/- 7.5% of control) in a baroreceptor denervated group. The initial increase in arterial pressure in a group of normally innervated dogs was smaller (118.8 +/- 1.8% of control), but by 24 hours postinfusion the arterial pressure of both groups had reached the same level. The innervated group had probably experienced baroreceptor resetting by this time. Blood volume both before and after infusion was not different in the denervated and innervated groups; however, sodium space was markedly higher before the infusion in the denervated dogs (431.8 +/- 13.8 ml/kg vs 344.8 +/- 19.0 ml/kg in the innervated dogs), and the volume load caused parallel increases in this space in the denervated and innervated groups. The present study shows that the blood volume of anephric dogs was unchanged after baroreceptor denervation while the extracellular fluid volume of denervated dogs was elevated. Furthermore, a small sustained increase in blood volume in either conscious, innervated dogs or conscious, baroreceptor denervated dogs, in contradistinction to the effects in anesthetized dogs, resulted in significant increases in arterial pressure (p less than 0.05).