Immediate-early genes, whose expression increases independent of de novo protein synthesis during the transition from quiescence to proliferation, are postulated to play important regulatory roles in the growth response. The complement of immediate-early genes expressed must depend on the milieu of preexisting transcription factors in the quiescent cell as well as the type of mitogenic stimulation and, thus, may differ between cell types. We have begun characterizing the immediate-early response in regenerating liver and insulin-stimulated Reuber H-35 hepatoma cells in comparison with previously published results from mitogen-stimulated Balb/c 3T3 fibroblasts. The proliferating H-35 and regenerating liver cells maintain their similarity to quiescent liver as demonstrated by their continued production of the liver-specific albumin, CCAAT/enhancer binding protein, and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase messenger RNAs (mRNA). Surprisingly, the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase gene, which undergoes down-regulation in insulin-treated H-35 cells, was cloned by differential screening of a subtraction-enriched regenerating liver cDNA library and is an immediate-early gene in regenerating liver. H-35 cells treated with either insulin or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate express elevated levels of the jun genes, and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate pretreatment fails to abolish the insulin response, indicating that it does not depend on protein kinase C. jun family gene expression in regenerating liver differs from that in mitogen-treated fibroblasts in that the time course of expression of c-jun and junB is prolonged, and junD mRNA levels distinctly increase. Additionally, although c-fos and egr-1 mRNAs are expressed at elevated levels in stimulated liver cells, fos-B, fra-1, and egr-2 are not, which suggests that factors in addition to the serum response factor participate in the regulation of immediate-early gene induction. Interestingly, gene 33, which was cloned from a regenerating liver cDNA library by differential screening and lacks a recognizable serum response element, functions as an immediate-early gene in regenerating liver and in mitogen-treated H-35 and Balb/c 3T3 cells. These results suggest that gene 33 participates in the transition from quiescence to proliferation in many mitogen-treated cells in addition to its previously reported involvement in hormone responses. Overall, the results presented here suggest that the immediate-early response varies considerably between regenerating liver and mitogen-stimulated fibroblasts and could involve multiple, preexisting, tissue-specific, transcription-activating proteins.