Chronic surgical denervation of the rat vas deferens leads to an enhanced contractile response of the tissue to norepinephrine in vitro. Norepinephrine produces a higher rate of protein kinase C translocation to the particulate fraction of denervated tissues as compared with the paired, control vas deferens. Diacylglycerol generation in response to norepinephrine and contractile responses to phorbol diacetate were not altered by chronic denervation of the vas deferens. However, the contractile response to norepinephrine in these tissues was less susceptible to the inhibitory effects of the calcium channel blocker nifedipine. A potential role of protein kinase C in sensitizing the contractile apparatus to mobilized calcium in denervation supersensitivity is discussed.