Transport of the nonmetabolizable glucose analogue, 3-O-methylglucose, was assessed in human polymorphonuclear leucocytes with or without the chemotactic peptide N-formylmethionylleucylphenylalanine (fMet-Leu-Phe). The peptide increased entry of labelled 3-O-methylglucose about 5-fold and the intracellular distribution space about 70%. The half-time of equilibration was 3 s in the treated cells. Similar effects were observed with zymosan-treated serum (containing the chemotactic factor C5a), with arachidonic acid, calcium ionophore A23187 and phorbol myristate acetate. However, the chemotactic protein, thrombin, had no effect, even though binding to high-affinity receptors was demonstrated. Km for zero-trans entry of 3-O-methylglucose was about 1 mM and fMet-Leu-Phe increased Vmax from 5 to about 25 amol.s-1.cell-1. Similar values were obtained from incubations for a few seconds with glucose and 2-deoxyglucose. The rate of 2-deoxyglucose uptake (8 min incubations) was limited by the transport step at substrate concentrations lower than approx. 0.1 mM, whereas the phosphorylation step became rate-limiting at higher concentrations. Thus, 2-deoxyglucose uptake can only be taken as a measure of transport at a tracer concentration. It is concluded that chemotactic factors can, but do not necessarily, increase the maximal transport velocity of hexoses entering the polymorphonuclear leucocyte via the glucose transporter.