The present study was designed to clarify the reason why rat platelets obtained from arterial blood show a less marked aggregation than those obtained from venous blood, and to investigate the contribution of the vessel wall to this phenomenon. Incubation of arterial or venous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) with papaverine, a phosphodiesterase blocker, resulted in a more marked inhibition of the aggregation parameters for arterial than for venous PRP, indicating that a cAMP-dependent mechanism is involved. Incubation of PRP in vitro with adenosine deaminase did not significantly modify aggregation. Rats treated in vivo with different doses of acetylsalicylic acid or of tranylcypromine, two cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors, abolished the aggregation differences between arterial and venous PRP. It is suggested that this difference in platelet behavior may be due to a mechanism dependent on a PGl2-like, probably cAMP-related activity in which the heart and/or the lungs may play an important role.