In an attempt to clarify the mechanisms underlying the lack of melanin formation in hair bulb melanocytes of chinchilla mice (genotype a/a, cch/cch, strain PW), we studied the effect of exogenous melanogenic stimulants such as theophylline (Tp), dibutyryl cyclic AMP (db-cAMP), and alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) on the induction of melanization. Skin explants excised from the dorsa of chinchilla or lethal yellow C57BL/6J, Ay/a) mice at 7 to 9 days of age were cultured in the presence of Tp (2 mM), db-cAMP (2 mM), or alpha-MSH (1.0 microgram/ml). After 2 to 5 days, melanin formation was induced in hair bulb melanocytes of chinchilla mutant in response to both Tp and db-cAMP, but alpha-MSH did not produce new melanin formation. In contrast, yellow mutant increased the melanin formation in response to all stimulants. Electron microscopic studies demonstrated that while non-treated hair bulb melanocytes of chinchilla mutant contain a large number of stage II-III melanosomes without melanin deposition, a hair bulb treated with Tp exhibits the new formation of melanin within melanosomes that appears both as typical eumelanosomes with striated longitudinal matrices and as pheomelanosomes with vacuolar melanization. Quantitative analysis of melanin has revealed that in chinchilla mutant, Tp and db-cAMP induce a severalfold increase in the formation of both eumelanin [pyrrole-2,3,5-tricarboxylic acid (PTCA)] and pheomelanin (aminohydroxyphenylalanine), whereas alpha-MSH does not stimulate production of either melanin. In yellow mutant, db-cAMP induced a remarkable increase in eumelanin (PTCA), in contrast to the fewfold increase induced by alpha-MSH and Tp. All stimulants induced a slight increase in pheomelanin to a similar extent. These different reactions to melanogenic stimulation suggest a possible defect in the tyrosinase activation system within hair bulb melanocytes in chinchilla mutants.