As part of a comprehensive survey of the impact of the environmental pollutant and hepatocarcinogen 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) on the proteome of hepatic cells, we have performed a high resolution twodimensional gel electrophoresis study on the rat hepatoma cell line 5L. 78 protein species corresponding to 73 different proteins were identified as up-or down-regulated following exposure of the cells to 1 nM TCDD for 8 h. There was an overlap of only nine proteins with those detected as altered by TCDD in our recent study using the non-gel-based isotope-coded protein label method (Sarioglu, H., Brandner, S., Jacobsen, C., Meindl, T., Schmidt, A., Kellermann, J., Lottspeich, F., and Andrae, U. The environmental contaminant 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) 1 is the prototype of a class of compounds known as halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons that includes dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans, and polychlorinated biphenyls. TCDD has been shown to cause a wide variety of toxic effects and is regarded as the most potent hepatocarcinogen in experimental animals (1). Epidemiological evidence suggests that TCDD is also a human carcinogen (2, 3). The molecular mechanisms underlying the tumorigenic activity of the compound are still largely unknown, which strongly hampers the estimation of the risk to humans associated with dioxin exposure and necessitates further studies aimed at the clarification of these mechanisms. Moreover the multifaceted toxicity of TCDD makes it a very attractive model compound for studies addressing the identification of basic principles associated with the disturbance of cellular homeostasis.