Approximately 94% of rat parotid cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase activity measured at a substrate concentration of 0.1 microM cyclic AMP was found in the 100,000 X g supernatant while the remaining enzyme activity was in the particulate fraction. Incubation of parotid slices with 10 microM isoproterenol resulted in approximately 40% activation of the cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase activity of the 100,000 X g supernatant. The enzyme activity in the particulate fraction was unaffected. The activation resulted from an increase in the value of the Vmax while the apparent Km (0.51 microM) was unaffected. The concentration of isoproterenol required to give half-maximal activation was 0.34 microM. The activation was rapid, became significant after 2 min and reached maximum after 30 min incubation of the parotid slices with isoproterenol. The activation of the enzyme activity by isoproterenol could be blocked by propanolol but was unaffected by cycloheximide. Dibutyryl-cyclic AMP was also effective while phenylephrine and carbamylcholine were ineffective in increasing the activity of the enzyme.