Fibronectin (FN) is a widely distributed extracellular matrix protein that is essential for cell adhesion in a variety of biological processes such as wound healing, tissue development and remodeling and oncogenic transformation. Appropriate FN levels are obtained by induction or repression of the FN gene in response to specific factors or circumstances in vivo. In order to identify regulatory regions involved in tissue-specific expression of FN, we have examined the transcriptional activity of overlapping fragments, within 4 kb upstream of the rat FN gene, following transfection into different cell types. Two regions conferred increases in transcription. The region between -1.08 and -2.6 displayed tissue-specificity and was active in fibroblasts but not hepatoma cells. The second region, between -3.2 and -3.9, was active in both cell types. Further characterization of the -1.08 to -2.6 segment demonstrated that it acts as an enhancer. Exonuclease III deletions of the 3' and 5' ends of the enhancer localized essential sequences between -1.5 and -1.7 and indicate that this fragment acts in concert with other sites between -1.08 and -2.6 to provide maximum enhancer activity. Gel mobility shift assays demonstrated fibroblast-specific binding of nuclear protein(s) to a 65 bp fragment within the essential region and DNase I footprinting localized this binding to a 27 bp sequence. Deletion of the sequence abolished the activity of the 1.5 kb enhancer. These studies show that a novel DNA sequence at -1688 is involved in regulating transcription of the FN gene in fibroblasts.