The anabolic effects of insulin on collagen production of freshly isolated Swarm rat chondrosarcoma chondrocytes were investigated. The specific radioactivity of newly synthesized collagen was not increased by insulin, indicating that the hormone has no effect on the specific radioactivity of the aminoacyl tRNA pool. Results of further studies obtained from collagen degradation experiments demonstrated that insulin did not alter the rate of [3H]collagen degradation. Together, these results clearly indicate that insulin stimulates collagen biosynthesis. Polyacrylamide gel analysis of the newly synthesized collagen of both control and insulin-stimulated cells revealed a large-molecular-weight component which migrated with authentic alpha 1(II) collagen and was collagenase-sensitive. Additional studies showed that, although insulin increased the processing and secretion of collagen, the hormone did not cause a shift in the distribution of the extracellular and intracellular collagen pools. Finally, results of studies conducted with the transcriptional inhibitor, actinomycin D, indicated that the anabolic effects of insulin on collagen and non-collagen proteins were mediated at a post-transcriptional site.