Astrocytes and lymphocytes are able to release significant amounts of taurine during periods of hypotonicity to reduce the increase in cell volume. To investigate this mechanism in the liver, we studied the release of free amino acids from isolated perfused rat liver during hypotonicity. The osmolarity of the perfusion medium was reduced from 305 to 255 or 205 mosM by decreasing the NaCl concentration 25 or 50 mM, respectively. This induced an 6–8% increase in liver mass and was associated with a specific 1.7-fold (−50 mosM) and 14-fold (−100 mosM) increase of the taurine release. None of the other amino acids measured showed a significant increase in their concentration in the effluent. The increase in taurine release occurred within 30 s after exposure to hypotonicity (maximal after 1–1.5 min) and followed closely the changes in liver mass. The taurine release declined gradually during successive exposures of the isolated liver to −100 mosM. This release was 29 and 17% of the original during the second and third exposure, respectively.Key words: cell swelling, liver, taurine.