Physiologically viable slices of rat hippocampus in vitro continuously release protein into the superfusion medium at a rate of about 2 micrograms/mg tissue/h. Assays of a cytoplasmic marker enzyme (lactate dehydrogenase) indicate that this material is not the result of cell lysis. Pulse-chase experiments using [3H]valine indicate that a substantial fraction of the newly synthesized proteins eventually appear in the incubation medium (18.7% +/- 3% of the total TCA precipitable radioactivity during a 6-h superfusion) and that the releasable protein pool has an apparent half-life of about 4 h. Simultaneous labeling of newly synthetized proteins with [3H]fucose and [14C]valine showed a 3-fold higher ratio of [3H]fucose to [14C]valine in the released protein fraction compared to the soluble cytoplasmic protein and to the crude membrane protein fraction, suggesting that the soluble released proteins are more highly glycosylated than the proteins retained in the tissue. Electrophoretic migration patterns on SDS-polyacrylamide gels with both labeled and unlabeled proteins show differences between the released proteins and the soluble cytoplasmic proteins of the tissue. Several molecular weights between 14 kdalton and 86 kdalton appear to be characteristic of the released protein fraction. These results suggest that a distinct group of proteins and glycoproteins exists in hippocampal tissue which is destined to be selectively released into the extracellular space.