Arterial remodeling occurs in response to mechanical and neurohumoral stimuli. We hypothesized that veins, which are not exposed to higher pressures in hypertension, would demonstrate less active remodeling than arteries. We assessed remodeling with two standard measures of arterial remodeling, namely vessel morphometry and the expression/function of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP). Thoracic aorta and vena cava from sham normotensive (systolic blood pressure 110±4 mm Hg) and DOCA-salt hypertensive rats (188±8 mm Hg) were used. We observed that wall thickness was increased in DOCA-salt vs sham aorta (DOCA-salt = 301±23 vs 218±14 microns; p< 0.05), as was medial area, but neither measure was altered in vena cava. Aorta and vena cava expressed the gelatinases MMP-2, MMP-9, MT1-MMP and TIMP-2. Immunohistochemically, MMP-2 localized to smooth muscle in aorta and densely in the endothelium/smooth muscle of vena cava. Western and zymographic analyses validated that MMP-2 was active in all vessels and less active in vena cava vs aorta. In hypertension, MMP-2 expression and activity in aorta was increased (sham = 59.1±3.7; DOCA = 74.5±6.1 units; p<0.05); similar elevations were not observed in vena cava. MMP-9 was weakly expressed in all vessels. MT1-MMP was expressed by aorta and vena cava, and elevated in vena cava from DOCA-salt rats. TIMP-2 expression was significantly increased in aorta of DOCA rats compared to sham, but TIMP-2 expression was barely detectable from vena cava of sham or DOCA-salt hypertensive rats. These findings suggest that large veins may not undergo vascular remodeling in DOCA-salt hypertension.