Insulin-induced hypoglycaemia causes profound haemodynamic changes, commonly ascribed to catecholamine increase. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of insulin-induced hypoglycaemia on non-adrenergic factors potentially involved in haemodynamic regulation: angiotensin II and alpha-human atrial natriuretic polypeptide. Fourteen healthy male subjects, aged 25.5 +/- 0.74 years, body mass index 23.81 +/- 0.68 kg/m2, received (after an overnight fast and at least 60 min rest in a supine position) an i.v. bolus injection of human regular insulin (Actrapid HM, Novo, Bagsvaerd, Denmark: 3.84 U/m2). Serial venous blood samples were drawn in the following 150 min, to measure plasma glucose, angiotensin II, alpha-human natriuretic polypeptide, and factors potentially involved in the regulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. During the study, we observed a plasma glucose fall, reaching a nadir of 1.95 +/- 0.11 mmol/l between 25 and 30 min, and an increase of angiotensin II (from 7.6 +/- 0.8 to 13.5 +/- 1.1 pg/ml, p = 0.01, quadratic model evaluated by an analysis of the variance for repeated measures), whereas atrial natriuretic polypeptide remained unchanged. As far as the regulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system is concerned, the increase of angiotensin II is attributable to the increased plasma renin activity, whereas angiotensin converting enzyme was not modified. The increase of plasma renin activity, in turn, is attributable both to the increased catecholamine concentrations and to the decreased potassium levels. Both adrenocorticotropic hormone and angiotensin II are potentially involved in the hypoglycaemia-induced increase of aldosterone concentrations.