The mechanism of exaggerated diuresis and natriuresis was studied in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) by renal clearance and micropuncture techniques. Control normotensive rats of the same age and sex [Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY)] were also studied. During the hydropenic control and the volume-expansion experimental periods absolute and fractional water and sodium excretion were greater in SHR than in WKY. Although fractional and absolute water and sodium reabsorption were similar along the proximal convolution in SHR and WKY, fractional and absolute water reabsorption in Henle's loop was less in SHR than in WKY. Hydrostatic and colloid osmotic pressures in the cortical peritubular microvasculature were similar in WKY and SHR. Acute normalization of renal perfusion pressure by aortic constriction reversed the exaggerated diuresis and natriuresis in SHR by halving the filtered load of water and sodium; whole kidney and single nephron glomerular filtration rates and blood flows decreased by 50%. It is concluded that the exaggerated diuresis and natriuresis of the spontaneously hypertensive rat is caused by a decreased reabsorption in the loop of Henle. The mechanism of this decreased reabsorption in the loop of Henle cannot be explained by alterations in the measured physical forces in the renal cortical microvasculature.