Extensive studies in the adult have demonstrated that the sympathetic nervous system plays a central role in cardiovascular control. The maturation of the sympathetic nervous system before birth is poorly understood. In the present study, we directly recorded renal sympathetic nerve activity (renal SNA) in five preterm fetal sheep (99 +/- 1 days gestation; term is 147 days). Recordings were performed in utero using a telemetry-based technique to alleviate movement artifact without anesthesia or paralysis. The preterm fetuses exhibited a coordinated discharge pattern in renal SNA, indicating many individual neurons active at approximately the same time. This is consistent with that observed previously in adult animals, although the frequency of the bursts was relatively low (0.5 +/- 0.1 Hz). The discharges in renal SNA were entrained to the cardiac cycle (average delay between diastolic pressure and maximum renal SNA 319 +/- 1 ms). The entrainment of the sympathetic discharges to the cardiac cycle indicates phasic baroreceptor input and that the underlying circuits controlling SNA within the central nervous system are active in premature fetuses.