The regulatory mechanism of human thymidine kinase (TK) gene expression was investigated in HL-60 promyelocytes during induction of monocytic differentiation with 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate (TPA). The steady-state levels of TK mRNA diminished gradually as cells were treated with TPA. The nuclear run-on experiments were performed and revealed that TPA treatment did not change TK gene activity in HL-60 cells. These findings suggested that the expression of TK mRNA was controlled by a post-transcriptional mechanism. The half-life of mature TK mRNA transcript was found to be more than 8 hours in both proliferating and differentiated HL-60 cells, which indicated that the stability of mature TK mRNA does not play a role in regulating TK gene expression. Analysis of poly(A-) TK mRNAs showed the high molecular weight precursors of TK mRNA which appeared in proliferating cells were not detectable in TPA-treated cells. This finding suggested that the TK mRNA processing event is implicated in the regulation of human TK gene expression in HL-60 cells during monocytic terminal differentiation.