DNA synthesis is dissociated from the immediate-early gene response in the post-ischemic kidney. The response of the kidney to ischemic injury includes increased DNA synthesis, which is preceded by rapid and brief expression of the c-fos proto-oncogene. While the timing of these two events would suggest that c-Fos participates in an immediate-early gene program leading to proliferation, no direct test of this hypothesis exists. The purpose of these studies was (1) to determine whether c-fos is expressed as part of a typical immediate-early (IE) gene response, which would require co-expression of c-jun and sensitivity to cycloheximide, and (2) to determine whether the cells expressing c-Fos are the same as those undergoing DNA synthesis. Northern analysis was performed on renal mRNA at different times following release of a 50 minute period of renal hilar clamping. c-jun and c-fos mRNA were rapidly and briefly expressed following renal ischemia and their expression was superinduced by cycloheximide in a manner typical of an immediate-early gene response. ³H-thymidine autoradiography performed on semi-thin sections from intravascularly perfusion fixed kidneys 24 hours following induction of ischemia showed labeled nuclei in cells lining the damaged proximal tubules of the outer stripe of the outer medulla, as well as proximal tubules in the cortex and interstitial cells throughout the kidney. However, immunohistochemical localization of c-Fos and c-Jun protein occurred predominantly in nuclei of the thick ascending limb, distal tubule and collecting duct cells. The studies demonstrate that c-fos and c-jun are expressed following renal ischemia as a typical immediate-early gene response, but they are expressed in cells that do not enter the cell cycle. The failure of the cells to enter the cell cycle may depend on the co-expression of jun-B and jun-D, which suppress the mitogenic activity of c-Jun in other cells. The data suggest that the IE response following renal ischemia is part of the stress response, which is antiproliferative rather than proliferative. The role of the stress response during renal ischemia and the fate of the cells undergoing it are unknown.