Y-1 adrenal cells contain specific vasopressin (VP) binding sites (27,000 +/- 2,000 sites/cell) of high affinity (KD = 2.2 +/- 0.5 X 10(-9) M). VP which alone has no effect on cAMP production inhibited in a dose-dependent manner (ID50 = 3.5 +/- 0.7 X 10(-11) M) the ACTH-induced cAMP production by Y-1 cells. The inhibitory effect was completely blunted by a 24 h pretreatment of cells with 1 microgram/ml of pertussis toxin. Moreover, VP also stimulated in a dose-dependent manner (ED50 = 2.4 +/- 0.8 X 10(-9) M) the accumulation of inositol phosphates indicating that the VP receptors in Y-1 cells were of the V1 subtype. However, neither VP nor a phorbol ester (4 beta-phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, PMA) was able to stimulate Y-1 cell steroidogenesis. Since in a previous work we have shown that Y-1 cells contain high levels of protein kinase C, the present results indicate that the steroidogenic refractoriness of these cells to VP and PMA might involve some step beyond protein kinase C.