Restrictions to the use of 111 indium-oxine as a radiolabel in lymphocyte migration studies.

Guinea pig T lymphocytes were labelled with various concentrations of 111In-oxine. The capacity of these cells to migrate into a skin inflammatory site was compared with that of 51Cr-labelled cells. The results show that even with low dosages of 111In-oxine which did not impair lymph node localization (1-10 microCi/10(8) cells/ml), migration into an inflammatory site was markedly reduced. Moreover, using this isotope, a significant contribution to the radioactivity recovered from an inflammatory site is made by the local accumulation of non-cell-bound label. These results stress the limited use of 111 In-oxine as a radiolabel in lymphocyte migration studies.