The highly selective alpha 1-adrenergic receptor antagonist prazosin was used to identify binding sites having alpha-adrenergic specificity in rat hepatic plasma membranes. Solubilization of the membrane-bound receptors was achieved by incubation with the nonionic detergent digitonin, and binding activity was assayed by using [3H]prazosin and a polyethylene glycol precipitation technique. Only 20-30% of the total receptor pool was released by the solubilization procedure. However, binding of [3H]prazosin was saturable [maximal value, 206 +/- 8 fmol/mg of protein (membrane) vs. 74 +/- 4 fmol/mg of protein (soluble)] and of high affinity [Kd, 0.6 +/- 0.2 nM (membrane) vs. 0.8 +/- 0.2 nM (soluble)]. To aid in purification of the receptors, an affinity resin was developed using an analog of prazosin, 2-(4-succinoylpiperazin-1-yl)-4-amino-6,7-dimethoxyquinazoline (CP 57,609; Kd 2.7 X 10(-7) M) immobilized via an amide linkage to agarose. The resulting resin demonstrated high affinity (Kd 3.2 X 10(-7) M) for the solubilized receptors, as determined by competitive inhibition assay. The degree of substitution to the resin was determined by a direct radioimmunoassay using antibodies against albumin-complexed CP 57,609 and found to be 0.1 to 0.2 mumol/ml of agarose. Affinity chromatography using the resin resulted in 513-fold purification in a single step. Moreover, the specificity of the purified binding sites was similar to that of membrane-bound receptors. This novel affinity resin should thus provide a powerful tool for isolating the receptor protein in quantities sufficient for detailed biochemical characterization.