Angiotensin II stimulates the hepatic synthesis and secretion of angiotensinogen, the substrate of renin. In the present study performed on freshly isolated rat hepatocytes we demonstrate that this effect of angiotensin II is mainly related to a transient inhibition of adenylylcyclase. Agents known to decrease intracellular cAMP (angiotensin II, vasopressin, guanfacine) or the cAMP-antagonist Rp-adenosine-3',5'-cyclic phosphothioate stimulated, whereas cAMP-stimulating agents (isoproterenol, forskolin, glucagon) or the cAMP-agonist Sp-adenosine-3',5'-cyclic phosphothioate inhibited angiotensinogen synthesis. In contrast, all agents known to affect intracellular concentrations of calcium, as confirmed in Fura-2-loaded hepatocytes (Bay K 8644, calcimycin, calmidazolium, ionomycin, or methoxamine) failed to influence the synthesis of angiotensinogen. The inhibitory effect of angiotensin II as well as the stimulatory effect of glucagon on cAMP were inversely related to angiotensinogen mRNA and angiotensinogen secretion over a wide concentration range of both peptides. Both the angiotensin II-dependent inhibition of cAMP and the angiotensin II-induced increase in angiotensinogen mRNA were abolished by a pertussis toxin pretreatment. In hepatocyte membranes, pertussis toxin ADP-ribosylated a single protein (approximately 41 kDa) probably representing the alpha-subunit of the Gi-protein, coupling inhibitory receptors to adenylylcyclase. We further show that the increase of angiotensinogen mRNA and secretion mainly represents the result of mRNA stabilization, since in a nuclear run-on assay, angiotensin II pretreatment of hepatocytes does not significantly alter the rate of [32P]UTP incorporation into angiotensinogen mRNA, whereas angiotensin II prolonged the half-life of angiotensinogen mRNA in transcription-arrested as well as in [3H]uridine pulse-labeled hepatocytes about 2.5-fold from 80 to 190 min. It is concluded that angiotensin II induces an increase in angiotensinogen synthesis in hepatocytes by stabilizing of angiotensinogen mRNA and that this effect is mediated through inhibition of adenylylcyclase.