We have investigated the effects of hormones on the permeability of the hepatocyte tight junction to two probes, [14C]sucrose and horseradish peroxidase, using one-pass perfused rat livers. Using a single injection of horseradish peroxidase we have demonstrated that this probe can enter bile by two pathways that are kinetically distinct, a fast pathway, which corresponds to the passage of the probe through the hepatocyte tight junctions, and a slow pathway, which corresponds to the transcytotic entry into bile. The passage of horseradish peroxidase through the hepatocyte tight junctions was confirmed by electron microscopic histochemistry. Vasopressin, epinephrine, and angiotensin II, hormones that act in the hepatocyte through the intracellular mediators calcium, the inositol polyphosphates, and diacylglycerol, increased the bile-to-perfusion fluid ratio of [14C]sucrose and the rapid entry of horseradish peroxidase into bile, indicating that the permeability of the tight junctions to these probes was increased. The effect of these hormones was dose dependent and in the cases of angiotensin II and epinephrine was inhibited by the specific inhibitors [Sar1, Thr8]angiotensin II and prazosin, respectively. Dibutyryl adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate did not affect the [14C]sucrose bile-to-perfusion fluid ratio or the fast entry of horseradish peroxidase into bile. These results suggest that the hepatocyte tight junction can no longer be considered a static system of pores separating blood from bile. It is rather a dynamic barrier potentially capable of influencing the composition of the bile.