Within 2 hr after 1,1-dichloroethylene administration, the following phenomena occur in livers of fasted rats: dilation and disruption of bile canaliculi, plasma membrane invagination and loss of microvilli, cytoplasmic vacuolation, and loss of density in mitochondrial matrices. Early, selective loss of enzyme activities was localized by histochemical staining to bile canalicular, and inner and outer mitochondrial membranes. Biliary permeability to inulin increased, a change suggestive of the breakdown of junctions between hepatocytes. Endoplasmic reticulum and lysosomes appeared spared. In addition, scattered, individual hepatocytes exhibited changes characteristic of apoptosis by 2 hr: chromatin aggregation and margination, nucleolar coarse granulation and enlargement, rounded blebs and proturberances on cell surfaces, and the separation of these cells from surrounding parenchyma. In contrast, evidence of plasma membrane leakiness to K+, Ca2+ and soluble cytoplasmic enzymes was not detected until after 2 hr. Based on these observations, we propose that 1,1-dichloroethylene may initiate apoptosis-like cell degradation in selected parenchymal cells prior to or coincident with centrolobular necrosis.