Although iron sucrose and iron gluconate are generally well tolerated in patients who are treated for renal anemia, recent clinical studies and cell culture experiments suggested significant toxicity and long-term side effects arising from the use of these iron complexes. Because of the possible role of iron in infection or cardiovascular disease, it was theorized that parenteral iron compounds influence endothelial and PMN interaction in vitro. A well-established double-chamber method was used to assess the effect of different concentrations of iron sucrose and iron gluconate (1, 25, 50, and 100 micro g/ml) on the transendothelial migration of PMN. Preincubation of PMN and endothelial cells as well as preincubation of PMN alone with 25, 50, or 100 micro g/ml iron resulted in a significant decrease in PMN migration. In contrast, after incubation of the endothelial cells alone with iron, no reduction in the transendothelial migration of PMN was observed. Preincubation of PMN and/or endothelial cells with 1 micro g/ml iron did not lead to any decrease in the rate of migrated PMN. The only significant change in experiments with 1 micro g/ml was an increase in PMN migration after preincubation of endothelial cells and PMN with iron gluconate. A four-way ANOVA showed a significant effect of the iron concentration (P < 0.000001), of type of iron complex (P < 0.005), of the preincubation of endothelial cell (P < 0.001), and of the preincubation of PMN with iron (P < 0.000001) on PMN diapedesis. It is concluded that iron sucrose and iron gluconate cause a significant inhibition of transendothelial migration of PMN.