The adrenal steroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) stimulates a dramatic increase in both the size and the number of peroxisomes present in liver when given at pharmacological doses to rodents. Structurally diverse chemicals including many fatty acids, hypolipidemic drugs and other foreign chemicals, can also induce such a peroxisome proliferative response. This response is associated with a dramatic induction of perosisomal fatty acid beta-oxidation enzymes and microsomal cytochrome P450 4A fatty acid hydroxylases and, long-term, can lead to induction of hepatocellular carcinoma. This review examines the underlying mechanisms by which DHEA induces peroxisome proliferation and evaluates the possible role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) in this process. Like DHEA, the 17 beta-reduced metabolite 5-androstene-3 beta. 17 beta-diol (ADIOL) is an active peroxisome proliferator when administered in vivo, whereas androgenic and estrogenic metabolites of DHEA are inactive. In primary rat hepatocytes, however, DHEA and ADIOI are inactive as inducers of P450 4A and peroxisomal enzymes unless first metabolized by steroid sulfotransferase to the 3 beta-sulfates, DHEA-S and ADIOL-S. Investigations as to whether DHEA utilizes the same induction mechanism employed by classic, foreign chemical peroxisome proliferators, namely, activation of the intracellular receptor molecule PPAR, have shown that DHEA-S and ADIOL-S are ineffective with respect to PPAR activation in transient transfection/trans-activation assays. This inactivity of DHEA-S in vitro suggests a requirement for specific cellular transport or for further metabolism of the steroid which is only met in liver cells. Alternatively, the action of DHEA-S may require accessory proteins or other nuclear factors that modulate the activity of PPAR, such as retinoid X receptor (RXR), hepatocyte nuclear factor-4 (HNF-4) or chick ovalbumin upstream promoter transcription factor (COUP-TF). Investigations using Ca(2+)-channel blockers such as nicardipine suggest that there are important mechanistic similarities between the foreign chemical- and DHEA-S-stimulated induction responses, and support the hypothesis that these two classes of peroxisome proliferators both activate Ca(2+)-dependent signaling pathways. Further studies are required to ascertain whether this potential of DHEA and its sulfated metabolites to serve as physiological modulators of fatty acid metabolism and peroxisome enzyme expression contributes to the striking anti-carcinogenic and other useful chemoprotective properties that DHEA is known to possess.