Hepatocyte proliferation was analyzed in vivo during the time course of continuous administration to rats of the liver tumor promoter ethinyl estradiol (EE) at 10 p.p.m. in the diet. EE-induced acute liver hyperplasia was detected in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats as an increased mitotic index of hepatocytes after 2 days of treatment. 5'-Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling showed that proliferating hepatocytes were randomly distributed throughout the hepatic lobule. Subsequently, and still during the first few days of continuous EE treatment, hepatocyte proliferation decreased to control levels, and a transient increase in the incidence of apoptosis in the liver was detected. Although consistent with the concept of liver growth regression after mitogen-induced hyperplasia, these results differ from others reported to date in that, in our experiments, the cessation of cell proliferation and the subsequent growth regression occurred without withdrawal of EE in our experiments. After returning to control levels, hepatocellular proliferation again increased between 3 and 6 months of chronic treatment and remained activated during the following months of continuous treatment, as seen by accumulative BrdU labeling. Proliferating hepatocytes were predominantly located in zone 2 of the hepatic lobule at this time, surrounding a periportal zone of vacuolated hepatocytes, which were also induced by the treatment. Moreover, hyperplasia of basophilic hepatocytes was also seen around some portal spaces. In another set of experiments, chronic EE-induced activation was characterized by flow cytometry on hepatocytes isolated from male Fischer rats. Ploidy analysis of hepatocyte cell suspensions showed that the normal polyploid pattern of hepatocytes was altered by EE, the proportion of diploid hepatocytes rising considerably. The results also showed that these diploid cells were the most susceptible hepatocyte population to EE-induced proliferation, as shown by a combination of BrdU labeling and cell sorting methods. In contrast to Sprague-Dawley rats, no vacuolated cells were found histologically in the livers of these animals and the proliferating hepatocytes were located adjacent to the portal areas. These results taken together support the existence of cell target populations in the liver responding to the effects of tumor promoters. The finding that a subpopulation of diploid hepatocytes was the liver cell class most susceptible to proliferation during chronic EE treatment may explain, at least in part, the behavior of EE as a tumor promoter in hepatocarcinogenesis.