Cellular retinoid-binding proteins play an important physiological role in the mode of action of retinoids upstream from the nuclear receptors. Tritiated analogues of retinol (ROL) and retinoic acid corresponding to substituted benzo[b]thiophene (CD-270) alcohol and carboxylic acid, respectively, were used for the binding studies of the cellular retinoic acid-(CRABP-) and retinol-(CRBP-) binding proteins in human epidermal cells and serum retinol-binding protein (RBP). We show that [3H]CD-270 carboxylic acid binds specifically to CRABP, whereas the alcohol derivative binds strongly to CRBP. However, the low amount of CRABP present concomitantly with CRBP suggests that [3H]CD-270 alcohol might be oxidized into minute amounts of the corresponding carboxylic acid derivative. The acidic character of the alcohol goup due to the aromatic ring of CD-270 might also support a possible binding to CRABP. In contrast, both derivatives show no affinity to RBP. These results suggest that the binding site of RBP is more restrictive to the retinoyl moiety than the binding site of cellular retinoid-binding proteins and therefore tolerates less chemical modification on the hydrophobic part of the ROL molecule. Moreover, when using these derivatives as ligands 2.4 times more CRABP and 3.9 times more CRBP could be measured with the PAGE technique as compared when using the natural [3H]ligands. The CD-270 derivatives might therefore be used as stable ligands for the study of both CRBP and CRABP. Since CD-270(OH) binds to the CRBP this may lead to the development of new synthetic analogues of ROL which could be used as tools for the study of the role of CRBP in the transport and metabolism of ROL.