We report that recombinant human IL 1 alpha and beta and the two synthetic short fragments 163-171 and 226-254 do not exhibit chemotactic activity for human peripheral blood neutrophils and monocytes. These products up to concentrations of 4 X 10(4) units/ml failed to show chemotactic activity. Furthermore, IL 1 alpha and beta failed to generate chemotactic factors from human serum. Recombinant IL 1 alpha, IL 1 beta, or IL 1 beta fragments 163-171 and 226-254 did not induce any superoxide response by monocytes or neutrophils. However, exposure of monocytes to recombinant IL 1 alpha or IL 1 beta resulted in enhanced generation of superoxide response following stimulation with PMA. No priming was observed in neutrophils. These results suggest that IL 1 alpha and beta are involved in regulation of monocyte oxidative burst response, but play no direct regulatory role on neutrophil function.