Oligodendroglial lineage cells (OLC) vary in susceptibility to both necrosis and apoptosis depending on their developmental stages, which might be regulated by differential expression of Bcl‐2‐related genes. As an initial step to test this hypothesis, we examined the expression of 19 Bcl‐2‐related genes in purified cultures of rat oligodendroglial progenitors, immature and mature oligodendrocytes. All ‘multidomain’ anti‐apoptotic members (Bcl‐x, Bcl‐2, Mcl‐1, Bcl‐w and Bcl2l10/Diva/Boo) except Bcl2a1/A1 are expressed in OLC. Semiquantitative and real‐time RT‐PCR revealed that Bcl‐xL and Mcl‐1 mRNAs are the dominant anti‐apoptotic members and increase four‐ and twofold, respectively, with maturation. Bcl‐2 mRNA is less abundant than Bcl‐xL mRNA in progenitors and falls an additional 10‐fold during differentiation. Bcl‐w mRNA also increases, with significant changes in its splicing pattern, as OLC mature. Transfection studies demonstrated that Bcl‐xL overexpression protects against kainate‐induced excitotoxicity, whereas Bcl‐2 overexpression does not. As for ‘multidomain’ pro‐apoptotic members (Bax, Bad and Bok/Mtd), Bax and Bak are highly expressed throughout differentiation. Among ‘BH3 domain‐only’ members examined (Bim, Biklk, DP5/Hrk, Bad, Bid, Noxa, Puma/Bbc3, Bmf, BNip3 and BNip3L), BNip3 and Bmf mRNAs increase markedly during differentiation. These results provide basic information to guide further studies on the roles for Bcl‐2‐related family proteins in OLC death.