Unlike the rabbit blood plasma the high-activity triglyceride lipase which does not require a protein cofactor and is resistant to 1 M of NaCl has been revealed in the liver of this animal. Rapid freezing of the liver tissue by liquid nitrogen before homogenization induced a sharp increase in the enzyme activity level and extraction of the active enzyme without heparin usually added to the homogenate. The specific activity of hepatic lipase purified from the ordinary heparin-containing homogenate by affinity chromatography on heparin-sepharose 4B was equal to 3800 microM of FFA/h per mg of protein. If the homogenate previously treated with liquid nitrogen was used as a source of enzyme, the specific activity of hepatic lipase was higher, namely, 13,000 and 19,000 microM of FFA/h per mg of protein in the presence or absence of heparin, respectively.