The permeability of the placental barrier to bromosulphophthalein (BSP) is believed to be very low. Whether this property is shared by other cholephilic organic anions, such as fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), is not known. When BSP was injected (140 mumol/kg body wt) into the left jugular vein of non-pregnant or pregnant female rats (at the 21st day of pregnancy), a similar and rapid plasma disappearance was observed during the first few minutes; afterwards, a slower disappearance phase was found. This phase was different in these groups, that is, a longer retention of BSP in the maternal bloodstream of pregnant rats was accompanied by a slower BSP output into bile. It was impossible to demonstrate the presence of BSP in fetal blood or the placenta by colorimetric methods. These results are consistent with the modifications occurring in the hepatic handling of BSP during pregnancy together with a marked impermeability of the placenta to the dye, at least in the mother-to-fetus direction. After intravenous FITC (10 mumol/kg body wt) administration to the mother, the compound was rapidly transferred into both the maternal bile and the fetal blood. Thereafter, FITC refluxed back from the fetal-placental compartment to the maternal blood as soon as the maternal liver reduced its plasma concentrations, which were first higher (approximately threefold) and then similar to those found in fetal blood. The reversible retention of FITC by the fetal-placental compartment accounts for a significant delay in both FITC bile output and plasma disappearance as compared with those observed in non-pregnant rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)