The biosynthesis and posttranslational processing of proenkephalin and the level of preproenkephalin mRNA were investigated in the mossy fiber system of the granule cells of the hippocampus in the presence or absence of a unilateral lesion of the hilus, a procedure that produces an episode of recurrent bilateral hippocampal seizures lasting several hours. Both immunocytochemistry and radioimmunoassay (RIA) have demonstrated that the hilus lesion leads to large bilateral increases in enkephalin immunoreactivity in the mossy fiber system. In the present study, RIA data indicate that following an initial decline in immunoreactivity, enkephalin content within the mossy fibers first begins to increase between 18 and 24 hr after lesioning. Using the technique of in vivo radiolabeling and high-performance liquid chromatographic purification of identified radiolabeled peptides, we observed a 14-fold increase in incorporation of radiolabeled methionine into Met5-enkephalin at 24-30 hr postlesion, as compared with control animals, when Met5-enkephalin was purified from the mossy fiber terminal fields. To examine the posttranslational proteolytic processing of proenkephalin, the biosynthesis of 5 additional Met5-enkephalin-containing peptides was also examined. We determined that the posttranslational processing of proenkephalin did not yield exclusively penta-, hepta-, and octapeptides but larger opioid peptides as well in both control and lesioned animals, and that the ratio of the enkephalin peptides was not altered following the lesion. Measurement of preproenkephalin messenger RNA levels in the granule cells by Northern analysis revealed a marked increase following the lesion. Compared with the control animals, preproenkephalin mRNA was 8.5-fold higher in the contralateral dentate gyrus at 12 hr postlesion and 14- to 15-fold higher by 24 hr.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)