To explore potential molecular chaperones involved in the intracellular assembly of laminin chains, bovine aortic endothelial cells were treated with a thiol cleavable divalent cross-linking reagent, dithio-bis-(succinimidylpropionate), and cellular proteins cross-linked to laminin chains were co-immunoprecipitated with anti-laminin antiserum. Sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) gel electrophoresis of the precipitate under reducing condition showed polypeptides with estimated sizes of 80, 60 and 50 kDa together with laminin chains. Two dimensional electrophoresis, in which non-reducing and reducing SDS electrophoresis were combined, suggested that many molecules of these polypeptides were cross-linked to each laminin chain. Sepharose CL-4B beads conjugated with E8 fragment of mouse laminin-1 was prepared. Affinity chromatography with the beads of microsomal proteins from rat liver showed that Bip and HSP70 associated to laminin chains and dissociated upon ATP hydrolysis. Protein-disulfide isomerase also showed affinity to the column. GRP94 and calnexin showed strong affinity and were washed out only with a detergent solution. Thus, many molecular chaperones are suggested to be involved in the intracellular assembly of laminin chains.