The human hepatoma HuH-7 cell line was shown to constitutively express both a plasminogen activator (PA) and a plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI). Four sublines of the HuH-7 cell line were analyzed and found to express differing amounts of both PA and PAI. The plasminogen activator produced by these cells was identified as urokinase based upon molecular weight, inhibition of activity with anti-UK but not anti-t-PA antibodies, adherence to an anti-UK affinity column and by Northern blotting demonstrating positive hybridization with the cDNA for UK, but not with the t-PA cDNA. The inhibitor produced by HuH-7 cells was identified as PAI-1 by molecular weight, immunoblotting techniques, adherence to an anti-PAI-1 affinity column, and by Northern blotting demonstrating positive hybridization with the cDNA for PAI-1, but not with the PAI-2 cDNA. The expression of both UK and PAI-1 by HuH-7 cells could be modulated by cytokines known to influence the acute phase response. The addition of interleukin-1 (IL-1) induced the expression of both UK and PAI-1. The increase of PAI-1 was due to an increase in amount of the PAI-1 mRNA. The presence of both interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) also increased UK and PAI-1 levels, although not as dramatically as IL-1. The addition of IL-1 together with IL-6 produced a slight synergistic response with respect to PAI-1 expression. This suggests that PAI-1 is able to respond to mediators which aid in the induction of the acute phase response. These studies demonstrate that cells of liver origin are able to produce components of the fibrinolytic system. The synthesis of these components can be altered by inflammatory mediators and thus may be involved in hepatic regulation of fibrinolysis in both normal and diseased states.