There is a high prevalence of hypertension and hypertension-related vascular disease in humans. Studies show that the expression of stem cell factor (SCF)/c-kit signalling proteins is relatively high during blood vessel repair. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between blood pressure (BP) and the expression of SCF/c-kit in peripheral blood. We carried out a cross-sectional analysis of 141 subjects in the health examination centre of our hospital. Information including waist circumference, BP, plasma glucose and serum lipids for each subject was collected. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) levels in peripheral blood were determined by radio-immunity assay. Expression levels of SCF and its receptor, c-kit, in peripheral blood were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We found a positive correlation between plasma SCF/c-kit levels and BP in these patients (SCF: hypertension 907.1+/-52.3 vs pre-hypertension 834.6+/-47.6 vs normal control 768.8+/-44.1 ng l(-1); c-kit: hypertension 13.2+/-1.6 vs pre-hypertension 11.1+/-2.1 vs normal control 9.6+/-1.5 mg l(-1), P<0.01). SCF/c-kit levels were also positively correlated with ET-1 and TNF-alpha levels (ET-1: hypertension 155.5+/-12.1 vs pre-hypertension 142.0+/-11.2 vs normal control 117.9+/-10.3 ng l(-1); TNF-alpha: hypertension 14.7+/-3.9 vs pre-hypertension 11.6+/-4.2 vs normal control 8.1+/-2.8 ng l(-1), P<0.01). Multiple linear regression analyses showed that SCF, c-kit and ET-1 are independent predictors for systolic blood pressure, and that SCF, c-kit, ET-1 and TNF-alpha are independent predictors for diastolic blood pressure. SCF/c-kit levels increase with BP levels are positively correlated with ET-1 and TNF-alpha levels.