The role of thyroid hormone on the postnatal development of ileal active taurocholate transport uptake was measured by an in vitro incubation technique in Sprague-Dawley rats. In 16-day-old rats treated with pharmacological doses of L-thyroxine (50 micrograms X 100 g body wt-1 X day-1 on days 10-13), ileal active transport appeared precociously whose Km was 1.60 +/- 0.48 mM and Vapp (apparent maximal velocity) was 8.09 +/- 1.14 nmol X min-1 X mg dry wt-1, while age-matched shams had only passive diffusion of taurocholate. To determine whether enhanced endogenous secretion of thyroxine was capable of stimulating development of ileal active taurocholate transport, thyrotrophic stimulating hormone (TSH) (0.5 U/100 g body wt twice daily) was given on days 10-13, with uptake measured on day 16. Following TSH treatment, only passive transport for taurocholate was observed in the ileum; uptake rates were consistently higher than those for untreated controls at each study concentration. Thyroidectomy performed at age 14 days with uptake measured at age 21 days did not ablate development of ileal active transport but resulted in a significant reduction (P less than 0.001) in the Vapp (7.39 +/- 1.10 nmol X min-1 X mg dry wt-1) and a significant increase (P less than 0.014) in Km (1.72 +/- 0.53 mM) compared with age-matched controls. Thyroid hormone does not appear to be obligatory for the postnatal development of ileal active taurocholate transport.