In this study, we examined whether air-jet stress-induced active sympathetic hindlimb vasodilation in conscious rats involves the release of preformed stores of nitric oxide-containing factors. We determined the effects of repeated episodes of air-jet stress (six episodes given 5 minutes apart) on mean arterial pressure and vascular resistances in the mesenteric bed and intact and sympathetically denervated hindlimb beds of conscious rats treated with saline or the nitric oxide synthesis inhibitor Nomega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 25 micro mol/kg IV). In saline-treated rats, air-jet stress produced alerting behavior, minor changes in blood pressure, pronounced mesenteric vasoconstriction, and immediate and marked vasodilation in the sympathetically intact hindlimb but a minor vasodilation in the sympathetically denervated hindlimb. Each air-jet stress produced virtually identical responses. In L-NAME-treated rats, the first air-jet stress produced vasodilator responses in the sympathetically intact and sympathetically denervated hindlimbs that were similar to those in the saline-treated rats. However, each subsequent air-jet stress produced progressively smaller vasodilator responses in the sympathetically intact but not the sympathetically denervated hindlimb. There was no loss of air-jet stress-induced alerting behavior or mesenteric vasoconstriction, suggesting that L-NAME did not interfere with the central processing of the air-jet or the resultant changes in autonomic nerve activity. The progressive diminution of air-jet stress-induced vasodilation in the intact hindlimb of L-NAME-treated rats may be due to the use-dependent depletion of preformed stores of nitric oxide-containing factors that cannot be replenished in the absence of nitric oxide synthesis. (Hypertension. 1996;28:347-353.)