Native disulphide-bonded prolactin (band III) was distinguished from reduced prolactin (band II) and intermediate unstable disulphide-linked conformations by: (a) faster mobility of the former in sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and (b) high-pressure liquid chromatography analyses of tryptic-digested peptides derived from prolactin in various conformations during its refolding pathway from reduced, unfolded to native conformation. The electrophoretic separation has been used to examine the state of disulphide bonding in newly synthesised prolactin translated from bovine pituitary mRNA in a rabbit reticulocyte translation system supplemented with nuclease-treated dog pancreatic microsomal membranes. The formation of correct disulphide pairing in prolactin (band III), synthesised in the in vitro translation system in the presence of pancreatic microsomes, required the presence of a thiol oxidant such as oxidised glutathione during the translation. The action of thiol oxidants on the in vitro biosynthesised and microsomally processed prolactin were both dose-dependent and catalytic; non-thiol oxidants such as NAD+ and NADP+ were ineffective. Examination of the time course of addition of oxidised glutathione to translating lysates showed that efficient and correct disulphide pairing in newly biosynthesised prolactin occurred when the oxidant was present co-translationally, but much lower yields of correctly disulphide-bonded prolactin were obtained when the oxidant was added after translation and processing were complete. The presence of protein-disulphide isomerase in dog pancreatic microsomes, employed in the in vitro translation system to process preprolactin, was demonstrated by (a) two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the membrane proteins, and (b) enzymic activity to accelerate reactivation of scrambled ribonuclease. Protein-disulphide isomerase activity was latent in intact microsomal vesicles, full activity being expressed upon sonication. A procedure has been devised to prepare pancreatic microsomal vesicles depleted of protein-disulphide isomerase which are active in processing and segregating in vitro biosynthesised prolactin. These membranes in the presence of low concentrations of oxidised glutathione are less active but in the presence of saturating levels of oxidised glutathione are fully competent in forming correct disulphide bridges in newly synthesised prolactin.