The influence of 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE) on bombesin-induced PIP2-phospholipase C activity (PL-C) was studied in vitro on isolated liver membranes. Both bombesin and HNE stimulated the enzymatic activity at micromolar concentrations and their effect was enhanced by the nucleotide GTPgammaS. An additive synergism was observed with 1 microM bombesin and 0.1 microM HNE. When GTPgammaS was added to the reaction mixture, the degree of PL-C stimulation in the presence of both compounds was not different from the activity value induced by bombesin alone. Since such micromolar amounts of HNE can be actually found in normal liver cells, these results support the hypothesis of a physiological importance of lipid peroxidation in the regulation of phospholipase-C activity.