The interferons are a group of naturally occurring proteins that inhibit the growth of tumours in vivo and many transformed cell lines in vitro. The mechanisms of action of interferon, however, remain unclear. The IFN induced inhibition of growth of many epithelial cancer cell lines is associated with changes in Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) binding or expression. Therefore, we examined the effect of IFN treatment on the expression of EGFR in a human breast carcinoma cell line, MDA 468. We have found the IFN-gamma inhibited, in a dose dependent fashion, the growth of MDA 468 cells. IFN decreased cell surface binding of 125I-EGF to EGFR by changing receptor number rather than affinity. However, total cellular receptor protein, as measured by immunoprecipitation with monoclonal antibodies, was increased in IFN-treated cells. The half-life of the metabolically labelled receptor was unchanged by treatment with IFN. Increased amounts of EGFR mRNA were observed in MDA 468 cells treated with IFN-gamma for 3 days. The levels of mRNA increased with time in culture, reaching a peak of four times control values after 5 days of treatment. This effect was observable with as little as 10 U ml-1 of IFN-gamma. Treatment of the cells with Actinomycin D to inhibit new RNA synthesis suggested that the stability of EGFR mRNA was not enhanced in IFN-gamma treated cells. The increase in receptor mRNA induced by IFN was not inhibited by cycloheximide. These data suggest IFN-gamma can increase expression of EGFR mRNA and protein in MDA 468 cells. Increased expression of EGFR mRNA and protein by IFN-gamma is associated with inhibition of cell growth.