Rat ceruloplasmin was purified from serum using fast protein liquid chromatography and compared to human ceruloplasmin isolated in the same manner. Rat ceruloplasmin was found to be more resistant to plasmin-mediated proteolysis than was human ceruloplasmin. Although both proteins were cleaved initially to products with apparent molecular weights of 116,000 and 20,000 Da, rat ceruloplasmin was resistant to further proteolysis, whereas the human enzyme was cleaved to smaller fragments. Primary structure differences could account for the different relative stabilities between the two enzymes. Kinetic analysis of rat ceruloplasmin produced a biphasic v vs v/s plot with apparent Km's of 40 and 1.5 microM for iron. When compared with the human enzyme, rat ceruloplasmin showed about one-fourth the ferroxidase activity and had a much broader pH profile than that of human ceruloplasmin. Rates of p-phenylenediamine oxidation by rat ceruloplasmin were about one-half those obtained with human ceruloplasmin, with maximal p-phenylenediamine oxidase activity at pH 5.0 for both enzymes.