To study the influence of contaminating leukocytes on the storage conditions of platelet concentrates (PC), various amounts of leukocytes were added to identical PC. From 12 blood donations, 12 leukocyte-poor PC were prepared and pooled. Subsequently, the pool was divided into 12 identical PC. The plasma volume of the PC was 58.6 +/- 0.6 ml, the platelet concentration was 1.01 +/- 0.04 x 10(9)/ml (mean +/- SD) and the red cell contamination did not exceed 10(7) per PC. To 4 groups of 3 PC, pooled leukocytes were added from the same 12 blood donations. The leukocyte contamination for each group of 3 PC was 0.14 +/- 0.05, 1.96 +/- 0.09, 5.53 +/- 0.98 and 13.0 +/- 0.93 x 10(6)/ml (mean +/- SD) for groups I-IV, respectively. The PC were stored for 7 days at 22 degrees C in normal polyvinylchloride bags. A significant correlation was found between increasing concentrations of leukocytes in the PC and the drop in pH (r = -0.93), glucose consumption (r = -0.91), lactic acid production (r = 0.93) and release of lactate dehydrogenase (r = 0.92) during storage of the PC. The excretion of beta-thromboglobulin, depletion of platelet adenine nucleotides, decreased ability to incorporate 3H-adenosine into metabolic nucleotides and poor morphology of the platelets were also significantly correlated with an increased number of leukocytes in the PC. These data show that high concentrations of leukocytes in PC have a significant detrimental effect on the viability of platelets during storage at 22 degrees C. We conclude that for good storage conditions of PC, the upper limit of leukocytes per PC should not exceed 10(7).