Rat ovarian granulosa cells were isolated from immature female rats after stimulation with pregnant mare's serum gonadotropin and then maintained in culture. Proteoglycans were labeled using [35S]sulfate, D-[3h]glucosamine, or L-[3H]serine as precursors. 35S-labeled proteoglycans in the medium increased linearly up to 72 h after a 6- to 8-h lag period, and those in a 4 M guanidine HCl extract of the cell layer increased for about 16 h and then reached a plateau and stayed fairly constant up to 72 h. Two distinct sizes of proteoglycans were observed in the medium. The smaller (Kav = 0.60 on Sepharose CL-2B) had lower buoyant densities in dissociative gradients (rho less than 1.4 g/ml). The larger (Kav = 0.26 on Sepharose CL-2B) had high buoyant densities (recovered mainly in the bottom (D1) fraction of the dissociative gradient). More than 90% of the D1 proteoglycans contained dermatan sulfate chains (average Mr = 38,000) which yielded 84% 4-sulfated and 15% disulfated disaccharides after digestion with chondroitinase ABC. About 8% of the 35S-label in D1 was present as a heparan sulfate proteoglycan. When [3H]-glucosamine was used as a precursor, 28% of the 3H activity in the D1 proteoglycans was located in three major oligosaccharide components, two of which were similar or identical with those observed previously in D1 proteoglycans isolated from porcine follicular fluid. These results plus similar susceptibility of the labeled proteoglycans to proteolytic enzymes, especially plasmin, suggest that the granulosa cells synthesize the predominant follicular fluid proteoglycans.