Post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms have been shown to play a major role in gene expression in eukaryotic cells. The presence of a reiterated pentamer (AUUUA) in the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) of mRNAs encoding lymphokines, cytokines, transcription factors, and proto-oncogenes has been shown to be associated with rapid turnover and translation attenuation. Cytoplasmic proteins (70, 50, 43, 36, and 25 kDa) capable of specifically binding to RNAs containing these AU-rich sequences were identified in human peripheral blood T lymphocytes. Levels of the 36-kDa protein were markedly increased following transcriptional, but not translational inhibition, a feature recently reported for hnRNP A1, a protein of comparable mass. Antibodies directed against heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) A1 and C immunoprecipitated 36- and 43-kDa proteins that had bound the AUUUA-rich region contained in the 3'-UTR of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor mRNA. Recombinant hnRNP A1 was shown to preferentially bind to RNAs containing AUUUA sequences in a specific manner, and displayed comparable patterns to the 36-kDa AU-specific binding proteins following partial proteolysis. These data identify for the first time hnRNP A1 and C as cytoplasmic proteins in human lymphocytes that are capable of specifically associating with reiterated AUUUA sequences present in the 3'-UTR of labile mRNAs. As such, they may play a role as trans-acting factors in the modulation of cytoplasmic mRNA turnover and translation, in addition to their previously characterized roles as pre-mRNA binding proteins involved in nuclear mRNA processing.