Freshly isolated hepatocytes from normal adult rat liver do not express measurable gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) mRNA in contrast to the significant GGT mRNA levels expressed by normal adult rat kidney and hyperplastic bile ductular tissue from bile duct-ligated rats. However, the induction of GGT activity in rat hepatocytes by two-thirds hepatectomy was accompanied by the appearance of a high level of GGT mRNA. We are now able to demonstrate that normal adult rat hepatocytes express 5 protein bands which cross-react with 2 different anti-rat kidney GGT antisera. The apparent molecular weights were 26.9, 58.0, 63.9, 73.5, and 83.4 kDa, respectively. Expression of the 26.9- and 58.0-kDa proteins strikingly parallels the pattern of induction of GGT enzymatic activity. This suggests that these 2 proteins correspond to the active dimeric enzyme previously described in kidney and neoplastic hepatocellular tissue. In normal hepatocytes, the 73.5-kDa protein represents 50% of the total GGT-immunoreactive protein, in contrast to kidney, where this band contains less than 4% of the GGT protein. The kinetics of expression of the 73.5-kDa protein upon induction of GGT activity in hepatocytes, as well as in culture turnover studies, suggests that this protein is a precursor form of the active enzyme, such as the described 78/79-kDa single-chain glycoprotein propeptide of GGT. It appears that in normal hepatocytes, this precursor is not processed to the same extent as in kidney or in hyperplastic bile ductular tissue.