Intrarenal infusion of the natural prostaglandin PGE2 increases renal blood flow, renal interstitial hydrostatic pressure, and urinary sodium excretion. A newly synthesized prostaglandin analogue, 4-3-[3-[2-(1-hydroxycyclohexyl)- ethyl]-4-oxo-2-thiazolidinyl]propyl benzoic acid, increases renal blood flow without increasing sodium excretion. To investigate the role of renal interstitial hydrostatic pressure in this dissociation, comparisons were made between PGE2 and the prostaglandin analogue. Intrarenal infusion of PGE2 increased renal blood flow, renal interstitial hydrostatic pressure, and urinary sodium excretion. Following a similar increase in renal blood flow with intrarenal infusion of prostaglandin analogue, renal interstitial hydrostatic pressure and urinary sodium excretion were not changed. To determine whether increases in urinary sodium excretion due to PGE2 infusion are causally related to the increase in renal interstitial hydrostatic pressure rather than to the increase in renal blood flow, responses to PGE2 were obtained in the absence of increases in interstitial pressure. When renal interstitial hydrostatic pressure was held constant, urinary sodium excretion did not change although there was a marked increase in renal blood flow. We conclude that increased renal interstitial hydrostatic pressure is necessary to produce an increase in urinary sodium excretion with prostaglandin-mediated renal vasodilation.