We have studied the recirculation patterns of leukocyte subpopulations during the first 24 h at 5 min before and 5, 15, 180, and 1440 min after autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) in 14 patients with cancer (6 with AML, 5 with malignant lymphomas, 2 with ALL, and 1 with Ewing's sarcoma) using multiparameter flow cytometry and measurements of myeloid progenitors (CFU-GM). Although the great majority of the injected cell populations were undetectable 5 min after graft infusion, the number of CD3+ T lymphocytes increased at 5 and 15 min and again at 24 h post-ABMT. In contrast, the number of CD56+ natural killer (NK) cells decreased rapidly after ABMT to remain low throughout the observation period. Mature myeloid and monocytic cells (identified by their expression of CD66 and CD14, respectively) were present before, as well as after ABMT in numbers indicating that they were probably of endogenous origin. Immature myeloid cells were identified in a three-color flow cytometric assay as CD13+ CD14- CD66- and tended to increase during the first 15 min after ABMT. Finally, when CFU-GM were followed longitudinally, they were found to be practically absent before ABMT but were clearly detectable in 12 of 14 patients throughout the observation period. We conclude that leukocyte subsets exhibit different recirculation patterns after ABMT, and in light of the increased knowledge about leukocyte-endothelial interactions, these data could provide a platform for attempts to control leukocyte recirculation during stem cell infusion.