A rapid method is described for the determination of dietary cadmium-induced metallothioneins (MTs) in rabbit kidneys by anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography. Rabbit kidney MT-I and MT-II were eluted at ca. 15.0 and 18.8 min, respectively, from a DEAE-5PW anion-exchange column with a Tris-HCl buffer (0.01-0.25 M, pH 8.6) and detected by ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm. A standard calibration curve was constructed using purified standard MT isoforms, which demonstrated an excellent linear correlation between UV absorbance peak heights and the amounts of MT isoforms. Feeding a dose of cadmium for some days resulted in an increase in MT concentrations in rabbit kidneys, but not in the livers. The cadmium concentrations in MT-I and MT-II elutions were determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. MT-I and MT-II showed some differences associated with the oral intake of cadmium. Dietary cadmium also caused zinc to accumulate in kidneys to some extent. The effects of dietary oleic acid on the synthesis of MTs were also studied. Based on the method of standard additions, the recovery of MTs exceeded 93% and replicated injection of samples yielded a relative standard deviation of 2.4% at an MT level of 280 micrograms/g.