We studied the effect of overexpression of apolipoprotein (apo) B-48 on the synthesis and secretion of endogenous apoB-100 in rat hepatoma McA-RH7777 cell lines stably transfected with human apoB-48 cDNA under the control of the cytomegalovirus promoter. Three cell lines that secrete 40 to 60 ng human apoB.mg cell protein-1.h-1 were used. The recombinant human apoB-48 exhibited physicochemical characteristics (buoyant density, 1.06 to 1.21 g/mL; beta-electrophoretic mobility and diameters, 16 to 20 nm) indistinguishable from those of endogenous rat apoB-48. Overexpression of the recombinant human apoB-48 resulted in a 50% decrease in the secretion of endogenous apoB-100 but did not affect the secretion of apoE or apoA-I. Several possible mechanisms for the decreased secretion of apoB-100 were evaluated. First, recruitment of lipids into lipoproteins was shown to be unaffected since no major changes in the physicochemical properties of apoB-100-containing lipoproteins were observed. Second, the intracellular degradation of apoB-100 was not altered as the intracellular retention half-time and secretion efficiency remained unaffected by apoB-48 overexpression. Third, the posttranslational regulatory mechanisms for apoB-100 remained normal, as demonstrated by a twofold increase in apoB-100 secretion after supplementation with oleic acid. Unexpectedly, a 35% to 50% decrease in the steady-state synthesis of endogenous apoB-100 was observed in apoB-48-transfected cells compared with control cells. These data suggested that decreased secretion of apoB-100 was secondary to decreased synthesis. The decreased apoB-100 synthesis was not due to decreased steady-state levels of rat apoB-100 mRNA. These results suggest that overexpression of recombinant human apoB-48 may interfere with posttranscriptional events, possibly at the translation-translocation level, and decrease translational yield of apoB-100. These posttranscriptional events prior to the complete synthesis of the apoB-100 polypeptide can be important in the control of apoB-100 secretion.