The rat Bone/Liver/kidney/Placenta Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) is transcribed from two alternative promoters spaced over 25 kb apart, resulting in two variant transcripts that are identical in their coding sequence. We investigated the steady-state levels of the two variant transcripts in various rat tissues and cell lines using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification for RNA phenotyping, RNase protection, and northern blot analysis. Our results demonstrate that ALP transcripts from the upstream promoter are preferentially expressed in calvariae, and are almost exclusively expressed in ROS17/2.8 osteogenic sarcoma cells. In contrast, the downstream promoter is preferentially expressed in kidney. Moreover, the increase in ALP activity and mRNA levels following dexamethasone treatment of ROS17/2.8 cells is correlated with an increase in the level of transcripts from the upstream promoter. Thus, the two alternative promoters of the rat BLKP ALP gene are involved in cell-specific and dexamethasone-inducible regulation of its expression.