We recently found that hepatic triglyceride lipase (HTGL) was released from primary cultured rat hepatocytes after treatment with prazosin, an antagonist of alpha-1 adrenoceptors. However, the details of prazosin-induced HTGL release remain uncertain. Here we investigated whether changes in cAMP levels in hepatocytes were related to HTGL release from prazosin-stimulated hepatocytes. When hepatocytes were treated with prazosin, cAMP levels during stimulated release of HTGL increased in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Stimulated release of HTGL was suppressed by the adenylate cyclase inhibitors MDL-12,330A and 2′,5′-dideoxyadenosine. Further, cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) activity in prazosin-stimulated hepatocytes also increased in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Moreover, prazosin-stimulated HTGL release was suppressed by the PKA inhibitors H-89 and KT5720. These results suggest that prazosin-stimulated HTGL release from hepatocytes was due to cAMP production and partly due to subsequent PKA activation in hepatocytes.