Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or bacterial endotoxin, causes liver damage at relatively large doses in rats. Smaller doses, however, may influence the response to other hepatotoxicants. The purpose these studies was to examine the effect of exposure to relatively all doses of LPS on the hepatotoxic response to allyl alcohol, which causes periportal necrosis in laboratory rodents through an known mechanism. Rats were pretreated with LPS (100 micrograms/kg) 2 hr before treatment with a minimally toxic dose of allyl alcohol mg/kg), and liver toxicity was assessed 18 hr later from activity of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in plasma and from histologic changes in liver sections. Plasma ALT and AST activities were not elevated significantly in rats treated with vehicle, LPS, or allyl alcohol alone, but pronounced increases were observed in rats treated with LPS and allyl alcohol. Significant liver injury occurred as early as 2 hr after allyl alcohol treatment in LPS-pretreated rats and peaked at 6 hr. LPS treatment did not affect the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase and did not affect the rate of production of NADH in isolated livers perfused with allyl alcohol; thus, LPS does not appear to increase the metabolic bioactivation of allyl alcohol into acrolein. On the other hand, pretreatment with 4-methylpyrazole, an inhibitor of alcohol dehydrogenase, abolished the hepatotoxicity of allyl alcohol in LPS-treated rats, indicating that production of acrolein was needed for LPS enhancement of the toxicity of allyl alcohol. Pretreatment of rats with gadolinium chloride (10 mg/kg), a known inactivator of Kupffer cell phagocytic function, decreased LPS augmentation of the response to allyl alcohol. These data indicate that LPS markedly enhances the hepatotoxic response to allyl alcohol. Furthermore, the results suggest that the LPS-induced enhancement of allyl alcohol hepatotoxicity occurs through a Kupffer cell-dependent mechanism.