A previously described digitonin-perfusion technique [Quistorff, Grunnet & Cornell (1985) Biochem. J. 226, 289-297], by which intracellular material of rat liver could be liberated, has been refined, now allowing release of cytosol of high purity from both periportal and perivenous parts of the same liver. The cytosolic fractions are obtained by perfusing the liver for short intervals (10-20 s) with digitonin (4-5 mg/ml), first in the normal perfusion direction and then, after an interval of 1-2 min, in the retrograde direction, the eluate being collected during and after both intervals. The technique is termed 'dual-digitonin-pulse perfusion'. The eluate fractions showed a peak specific activity of the cytosolic enzymes alanine aminotransferase (ALAT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and pyruvate kinase (PK) of 3-5-fold higher than obtained in a biopsy from the same liver. For glutamine synthetase (GS) a 10-fold higher specific activity was obtained. Zonation, defined as the ratio of the specific activities in periportal and perivenous eluates, of ALAT, LDH and PK was 10, 1.7 and 0.70 respectively. Zonation of GS was less than 0.01. These factors may be modified by a slight zonation of cytosolic protein of 1.2-1.3. Peak concentrations in the eluate of ATP, ADP, Pi, NAD+ and glycerol 3-phosphate were 32.5 +/- 11.4, 19.9 +/- 4.3, 71.9 +/- 25.4, 2.41 +/- 0.83 and 6.84 +/- 2.74 nmol/mg of protein for periportal eluates. There was no difference between periportal and perivenous eluates except for glycerol 3-phosphate, which was significantly higher in perivenous eluates, 12.8 +/- 4.5 nmol/mg of protein.