During keratinocyte differentiation, the glycolipid, glucosylceramide (GlcCer), is thought to be synthesized, stored in intracellular lamellar granules and eventually extruded into the intercellular space where GlcCer is hydrolyzed to ceramide, a major component of the epidermal permeability barrier. Previous studies showed that GlcCer synthase (GCS) activity increases during keratinocyte differentiation; however, the mechanism by which GCS activity is regulated was not established. In the present study, we prepared anti-peptide antibodies and amplified cDNA probes based on the cDNA sequence for human GCS (Ichikawa, S., Sakiyama, H., Suzuki, G., Hidari, K. I.-P. J., and Hirabayashi, Y. (1996) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 93, 4638-4643) in order to study GCS expression during keratinocyte differentiation. Confluent human keratinocytes in culture were induced to terminally differentiate by elevation of Ca+2 in the medium without exogenous hormones or growth factors. GlcCer synthesis assayed in situ using a fluorescent ceramide analog increased approximately 5-fold during keratinocyte differentiation, peaking at day 6. Fluorescence microscopy studies of living keratinocytes showed that fluorescent ceramide and/or its metabolites accumulated in the Golgi in undifferentiated cells but targeted to unique vesicular structures that may be derived from the trans-Golgi region. Expression of both GCS mRNA, a approximately 3. 8-kilobase transcript on Northern blots, and GCS protein, a approximately 38-kDa polypeptide detected by Western blotting, increased dramatically (approximately 5-fold) during differentiation, reaching a maximum at about day 8. These results suggest that GCS is up-regulated at the transcriptional level during keratinocyte differentiation and provide the first direct evidence for GCS up-regulation in any cell type.