Mouse renal cell tumors (RCTs) were induced in male CBA mice by 5 subcutaneous injections of 8 mg 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH)/kg body weight once a week. After a lag period of 2 yr kidneys were removed, and serial cryostat sections of the kidneys were histochemically analyzed for the following parameters: glycogen content, basophilia, and the activities of glycogen synthase (SYN), glycogen phosphorylase (PHO), glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), hexokinase (HK), pyruvate kinase (PK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malic enzyme (ME), succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), alkaline phosphatase (ALPase) and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT). RCTs displayed the same histochemical profile irrespective of their size and growth pattern. In comparison with the normal kidney epithelium, the neoplastic cells exhibited elevated activities of enzymes for glycolysis (HK, PK, LDH) and the pentose phosphate pathway (G6PDH), while negative G6Pase and low SDH activity were observed in these cells. The majority of RCTs showed high PHO activity and weak staining for SYN. Activities of ALPase and GGT were negative in most of the RCTs. Markedly enlarged cells with atypical nuclei were detected in some advanced RCTs. Higher activities of glycolytic and mitochondrial enzymes and G6PDH were found in these enlarged cells than in other tumor cells. Tubular preneoplastic lesions were similar to neoplastic lesions in morphological and histochemical characteristics. The present study revealed that a markedly elevated capacity for glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway occurred in RCTs in mice. A similar histochemical pattern in the few preneoplastic tubular lesions observed suggests that these metabolic aberrations emerge early during carcinogenesis, but additional studies on early stages of renal carcinogenesis are needed to substantiate this assumption.