We describe here a system for culturing epithelial cells isolated from hamster trachea, which results in a highly enriched population of mucus-secreting cells. The culture system has enabled us to study the process of secretory cell differentiation in vitro. We found that epithelial secretory cells, in vivo and after 5 days in vitro, selectively bind the lectin Helix pomatia agglutinin (HPA) to apical and, to a lesser extent, basolateral surfaces as well as to mucin granules and intracellular secretory organelles. SDS-PAGE gels of detergent extracts of secretory cells cultured for 5 days reveal three HPA-binding glycoproteins with MW of 120 KD, 220 KD, and greater than 400 KD. The high-MW glycoprotein appears identical to mucin, since it is found in secretions from intact trachea and in spent media from 5-day cultures. It does not appear in spent media from 3-day cultures when cells contain few mucous granules and secrete little mucin. The 220 KD HPA-binding glycoprotein is also present in 5-day but not in 3-day cultures. In contrast, the 120 KD glycoprotein is present at both times. HPA-gp120 is a hydrophobic integral membrane protein, whereas HPA-gp220 and mucin are hydrophilic and are membrane associated. These studies define three membrane glycoproteins, one of which is specific for the tracheal epithelial secretory cell regardless of its mucous content, whereas the other two glycoproteins correlate with mucin secretion. They also demonstrate that, in the fully differentiated state, mucin is bound in a non-covalent fashion to the apical plasma membrane of the tracheal epithelial secretory cell.