The histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) and hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA), which lacks HDAC inhibitory activity, both possess the capacity to induce leukemia cell differentiation and to enhance the expression of a wide range of transiently transfected reporter genes in 3T3 Swiss cells. In addition, known inducers of leukemia cell differentiation, including hypoxanthine, diazepam, 6-thioguanine and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, also exhibited the ability to enhance reporter gene expression, while randomly chosen compounds that did not induce leukemia cell differentiation did not enhance reporter gene expression. The activity of TSA in the transfection system was modified by co-expression of histone acetyltransferase p300 and HDAC1; whereas, that of HMBA was enhanced by co-expression of the TATA-binding protein TBP. The stimulatory effects of diverse chemical inducers on transiently transfected genes suggest the existence of multiple exploitable targets for the selection of novel inducers of differentiation that function as modulators of gene activity.