Basophil-containing leucocyte fractions stimulated with an anti-human IgE, F(ab')2, generated histamine and the leukotrienes LTB4 and LTC4 with significant correlations between LTB4 and histamine (P less than 0.01; n = 26) and LTC4 and histamine release (P less than 0.001; n = 29) in the cell-free supernatants (SN). SN from these anti-IgE-treated cells enhanced the cytotoxicity of eosinophils and neutrophils (against complement-coated schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni) in vitro. When SN were fractionated by reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), the enhancing activity for neutrophils was almost totally confined to fractions having LTB4 immunoreactivity (co-eluting as a single peak with the synthetic LTB4 marker). In contrast, the LTB4-containing fraction had minimal effects on eosinophil cytotoxicity, whereas synthetic histamine gave comparable enhancement to the unfractionated SN. The generation of LTs (but not histamine), as well as enhanced neutrophil cytotoxicity from basophil-containing leucocytes by anti-IgE treatment, was maximally inhibited by the 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors U-60, 257 and BW755C. Conversely, the cyclooxygenase inhibitor indomethacin did not significantly affect LT release, nor did it affect the subsequent cytotoxicity enhancing activity of SN from such cells. These results indicate that LTB4 and LTC4 are released from basophils, together with histamine, by IgE-dependent mechanisms, LTB4 enhances the cytotoxicity of bystander neutrophils, and histamine (and to a lesser extent, LTB4) augments eosinophil cytotoxicity.