The composition and antibiotic permeability barrier of the outer membrane of Serratia marcescens were assessed in cells grown in vivo and in vitro. Intraperitoneal diffusion chambers implanted in rats were used for the in vivo cultivation of bacteria. Outer membranes isolated from log-phase bacterial cells recovered from these chambers were compared with membranes isolated from cells grown in vitro. Analysis revealed that the suspected 41-kilodalton porin and the OmpA protein were recovered on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels in equal quantities. Several high-molecular-weight proteins, thought to be iron starvation induced, appeared in the diffusion chamber-grown cells. The outer membrane permeability barriers to cephaloridine were similar in in vivo- and in vitro-grown cells based on permeability coefficient calculations. The permeability coefficient of cephaloridine in S. marcescens cells (30.3 x 10(-5) to 38.9 x 10(-5) cm s-1) was greater than that obtained for an Escherichia coli strain expressing only porin OmpC but smaller than those obtained for the E. coli wild type and a strain expressing only porin OmpF. Functional characterization of the suspected porin was performed by using the planar lipid bilayer technology. The sodium dodecyl sulfate-0.4 M NaCl-soluble porin from both in vitro- and in vivo-grown cells showed an average single-channel conductance in 1 M KCl of 1.6. A partial amino acid sequence (19 residues) was obtained for the S. marcescens porin. The sequence showed a very high homology to the E. coli OmpC porin. These data identified the S. marcescens outer membrane 41-kilodalton protein as a porin by both functional and amino acid analyses. Also, the methodology used allowed for efficient growth and recovery of diffusion chamber-grown bacterial cells and permitted identification of specific in vivo-induced changes in bacterial cell membrane composition.