Adrenal secretion rates of aldosterone, corticosterone, and deoxycorticosterone were studied sequentially in the spontaneously hypertensive rat and the normotensive Kyoto Wistar rat. Steroid secretion was studied at three different ages: 7-8, 11-13, and 22-25 weeks. Also, peripheral plasma levels of aldosterone and plasma renin activity were determined in both the spontaneously hypertensive and the normotensive rats at 7-8 weeks of age. Aldosterone secretion was elevated markedly in dexamethasone-morphine-treated spontaneously hypertensive rats at both 7-8 and 11-13 weeks of age but was not significantly different from control in 22-25-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats. No statistically significant differences in corticosterone or deoxycorticosterone secretion rates were observed between the spontaneously hypertensive rats and the normotensive Kyoto Wistar controls; however, the data suggested that dexamethasone did not suppress adrenocorticotropic hormone in the 7-8- and 11-13-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats to the same extent that it did in the normotensive Kyoto Wistar rats. Therefore, aldosterone secretion was reexamined in acutely hypophysectomized 7-8-week-old rats to eliminate completely the influence of the anterior pituitary; no differences in aldosterone, corticosterone, or deoxycorticosterone secretion rates were observed between hypophysectomized spontaneously hypertensive rats and normotensive Kyoto Wistar rats. Moreover, aldosterone secretion in the hypophysectomized 7-8-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats was reduced markedly compared with that in the intact 7-8-week old spontaneously hypertensive rats, thus confirming the importance of the pituitary in these animals. Determinations of peripheral plasma aldosterone concentration and plasma renin activity in unstressed 7-8-week-old spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive rats revealed that both parameters were depressed significantly in the spontaneously hypertensive rats. Thus, the present data indicate that the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system is suppressed in the spontaneously hypertensive rat but do not suggest that the system is critically involved in the hypertensive process in these animals