Heat shock gene expression is regulated by highly conserved sequence elements (HSE for "heat shock elements"). Some of heat shock genes display an atypical expression during preimplantation mouse development. We have examined the profile of HSE-binding activities (HSE-BA) in matured ovulated oocytes and during the preimplantation development by gel shift assay and quantified the data by PhosphorImager. In each of our experiments, the F9 embryonal carcinoma cell line that contains both constitutive and heat-induced activity has been used as a control. We determine the number of oocytes or embryos required to get reproducible signals and accurate quantification by PhosphorImager. Oocytes, one-cell, and two-cell embryos respond to heat shock by inducing a strong HSE-BA. At the four-cell stage, no HSE-BA can be induced by heat shock, which suggests that noninducibility of heat shock genes at this stage (when the general mechanism of transcription is well established) might result from a defect in HSF or in the mechanism of HSF activation. A progressive reappearance of the ability to induce HSE-BA by stress is observed between the eight-cell stage and the blastocyst stage, and this parallels the appearance of heat shock gene inducibility. Matured ovulated oocytes and the first cleavage stages of embryos do not contain any HSE-BA at normal temperature but we observed a HSE-BA at normal temperature at the morula stage, which is increased at the blastocyst stage. These data, which, to our knowledge, for the first time describe the profile of a DNA-binding activity during the mouse preimplantation development, could serve as a basis for the study of other transcription factors during early embryogenesis.