A matched set of chimeric mouse-human NP-antibodies were studied for the capacity to induce cell mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) by normal peripheral blood NK/K cells. The target cells were sheep red blood cells (SRBC) sensitized with the haptens NP or NIP. All four IgG subclasses and several IgG3 variants with altered hinge were tested for ADCC activity. The hierarchy of the ADCC capacity among the subclasses was found to be IgG3 greater than IgG1 greater than IgG4 greater than IgG2. The superiority of IgG3 was only revealed at low effector cell:target cell ratio. The ADCC activity was for the most part unaltered by shortening the hinge region of IgG3 from 62 to 15 amino acids. Also, when the hinge region of IgG3 was mutated to become identical to that of IgG4, the ADCC activity was mainly unchanged. However, an IgG3 variant with deletion of all four hinge exons showed a depressed ADCC activity compared to the wild type. The IgG subclass pattern of complement-mediated lysis (CML) and ADCC is different and the capacity to induce CML and ADCC is changed differently by hinge region modification. Thus CML and ADCC have different structural requirements in the Fc region of IgG.