This study was designed to determine the effect of in vivo hydrocortisone on subpopulations of lymphoid cells in normal humans. Subjects received a single intravenous dose of either 100 mg or 400 mg of hydrocortisone, and blood was drawn at hourly intervals for 6 h, and then again at 10 and 24 h after injection. Profound decreases in absolute numbers of circulating lymphocytes and monocytes occurred at 4-6 h after both 100 mg and 400 mg of hydrocortisone. Counts returned to normal by 24 h. The relative proportion of circulating thymus-derived lymphocytes as measured by the sheep red blood cell rosette assay decreased maximally by 4 h and returned to base line 24 h after hydrocortisone. There was a selective depletion of functional subpopulations of lymphocytes as represented by differential effects on in vitro stimulation with various mitogens and antigens. Phytohaemagglutinin response was relatively unaffected, while responses to concanavalin A were significantly diminished. Responses to pokeweed mitogen were unaffected by 100 mg of hydrocortisone, but greatly diminished by 400 mg of hydrocortisone. In vitro responses to the antigens streptokinase-streptodornase and tetanus toxoid were markedly diminished by in vivo hydrocortisone. Reconstitution of monocyte-depleted cultures with autologous monocytes partially corrected the diminished response to antigens. This transient selective depletion of monocytes and subsets of human lymphocytes by a single dose of hydrocortisone is most compatible with a redistribution of these cells out of the circulation into other body compartments.