In mammalian nonpigmented ciliary epithelial (NPE) cells, hyposmotic stimulation leading to cell swelling activates an outwardly rectifying Cl– conductance (ICl,swell), which, in turn, results in regulatory volume decrease. The aim of this study was to determine whether increased trafficking of intracellular ClC-3 Cl channels to the plasma membrane could contribute to the ICl,swell following hyposmotic stimulation. Our results demonstrate that hyposmotic stimulation reversibly activates an outwardly rectifying Cl– current that is inhibited by phorbol-12-dibutyrate and niflumic acid. Transfection with ClC-3 antisense, but not sense, oligonucleotides reduced ClC-3 expression as well as ICl,swell. Intracellular dialysis with 2 different ClC-3 antibodies abolished activation of ICl,swell. Immunofluorescence microscopy showed that hyposmotic stimulation increased ClC-3 immunoreactivity at the plasma membrane. To determine whether this increased expression of ClC-3 at the plasma membrane could be due to increased vesicular trafficking, we examined membrane dynamics with the fluorescent membrane dye FM1-43. Hyposmotic stimulation rapidly increased the rate of exocytosis, which, along with ICl,swell, was inhibited by the phosphoinositide-3-kinase inhibitor wortmannin and the microtubule disrupting agent, nocodazole. These findings suggest that ClC-3 channels contribute to ICl,swell following hyposmotic stimulation through increased trafficking of channels to the plasma membrane.Key words: ClC-3, NPE, cell swelling, membrane trafficking, ciliary body epithelium.