There is increasing concern that certain chemicals in the environment can cause endocrine disruption in exposed humans and wildlife. Investigations of potential effects on endocrine function have been limited mainly to interactions with hormone receptors. A need exists for the development of alternate in vitro methods to evaluate chemicals for their potential to disturb various endocrine functions via other mechanisms. Our laboratory is using the human H295R adrenocortical carcinoma cell line to examine chemicals for their potential to interfere with the activity and/or expression of several key cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of steroid hormones. In this report we demonstrated that the commonly used 2-chloro-s-triazine herbicides atrazine, simazine, and propazine dose-dependently (0-30 microM) induced aromatase (CYP19) activity to an apparent maximum of about 2.5-fold in H295R cells. Basal- and triazine-induced aromatase activity was completely inhibited by the irreversible aromatase inhibitor 4-hydroxyandrostenedione (100 microM). The triazines increased levels of CYP19 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) between 1.5- and 2-fold. The time-response profile of the induction of aromatase activity and CYP19 mRNA by the triazines was similar to that by 8-bromo-cyclic adenosine monophosphate, a known stimulant of the protein kinase-A pathway that mediates the induction of aromatase in these cells. The observed induction of aromatase, the rate-limiting enzyme in the conversion of androgens to estrogens, may be an underlying explanation for some of the reported hormonal disrupting and tumor promoting properties of these herbicides in vivo.