The feasibility of utilizing technetium 99m (Tc-99m) lymphocytes labeled by a modified stannous chloride technique for the assessment of cardiac allograft rejection was examined. Syngeneic lymphocytes were labeled with Tc-99m at 125 microCi per 10(7) cells. Mean labeling efficiency was 67 +/- 17%, n = 44. Two groups of rats allogeneic (ALLO) (ACI/Lewis) and syngeneic (SYN) (Lewis/Lewis) were injected with labeled cells at two, four, five, and seven days post cardiac graft. At 20 hr post-injection, transplant and native hearts were harvested for radioanalysis and histology. Ratio of percent dose per gram transplant heart to native heart (T/N) revealed a significant difference between ALLO (T/N = 2.7 +/- 0.23, n = 5) and SYN (T/N = 1.73 +/- 0.12, n = 5) at two days P[F] = 0.0045. Maximum difference occurred at five days with ALLO mean T/N of 6.40 +/- 0.54, n = 5 (P[F] = 0.0001). There was no significant difference at seven days post graft with ALLO 2.85 +/- 0.30, n = 5 and SYN 2.02 +/- 0.05, n = 5 (P[F] = 0.0166). SYN rat T/Ns did not change significantly (mean 1.83 +/- 0.10, n = 18) at the various time periods.