This experiment was performed to evaluate the effect of TSH (thyroid-stimulating) on the ERp29 (endoplasmic reticulum resident 29 kDa protein) gene expression in the rat thyrocytes of FRTL-5 cells. Although ERp29 mRNA was constantly expressed, its expression began to increase remarkably from 10-9 M TSH. and its maximum expression was at 5×10-9 M TSH (about 3.5 fold). On the other hand, the effect of TSH on the abundance of ERp29 mRNA started within 6 h, and peaked at 8 h (about 2.5 fold). Actinomycin D (transcription inhibitor) strongly blocked this effect while cycloheximide (translation inhibitor) did not. The half-life of ERp29 mRNA was about 4.5 h in the presence or absence of TSH that was not affected by the stability of ERp29 mRNA. The effect of TSH on the ERp29 gene expression was specific, while other growth factors (transfferin, insulin, and hydrocortisone) did not alter its expression. Our data indicate for the first time that the expression of ERp29 is regulated transcriptionally by TSH in the thyrocytes.