Recently, it was suggested that the role of hyperinsulinemia on the hypertensive mechanism of essential hypertension might be related to renal sodium handling and sympathetic nerve activity, especially in obese hypertensive patients. However, the interrelationship between insulin, obesity, renal sodium metabolism and sympathetic nerve activity in normotensive subjects (NT) still remains unclear. The present study, therefore, was undertaken to clarify the role of insulin on renal sodium handling and sympatho-adrenal function in overweight NT. The study consisted of 24NT, who were divided into two groups of twelve non-obese (NNT) and twelve obese (ONT) subjects. NNT was categorized as a body mass index (BMI) less than, and ONT as a BMI equal to or more than 25kg/m2. In the early morning, after overnight fasting, all subjects remained in a supine state and were examined for renal clearance test. During the two-hour clearance period, mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), endogenous creatinine clearance(CCr), urinary excretion of sodium (UNaV), fractional excretion of sodium (FENa), plasma immunoreactive insulin (IRI), plasma norepinephrine concentration (pNE), and plasma epinephrine concentration (pE) were determined. Although no significant difference was found in age, MAP, HR, pE, CCr or UNaV between the two groups, a significantly higher IRI (p less than 0.05) and lower FENa (p less than 0.05) were observed in ONT than in NNT. There was no significant correlation between IRI and UNaV, FENa or pE in ONT or in NNT. In addition, no significant correlation was shown between FENa and pNE or pE in both groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)