To better understand the effects of freezing on various immunocompetent cell functions, the interleukin-6 (IL-6)-producing activities of frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy subjects were determined. Frozen, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated PBMCs produced significantly larger quantities of IL-6 than fresh cells. Although elimination of radiosensitive, CD8+ suppressor T cells had no significant effect on PHA-induced IL-6 production by T cells, elimination of CD4+ Leu-8+ suppressor T cell subsets resulted in a significantly enhanced IL-6 secretion. Exogenous addition of prostaglandin E-2 to frozen PBMCs and monocytes inhibited LPS-induced IL-6 production. The results suggest that functional inactivation of a subset of cryosensitive, PGE-2-secreting monocytes is associated with an increase in IL-6 production by the other subset. They also indicate that a subset of CD4+ Leu-8+ T cells might be involved in feedback inhibition of PHA-induced T cell-mediated IL-6 production. The results provide further evidence that the presence of larger quantities of IL-6 in conjunction with increased amounts of IL-1 and IL-2 secreted by the frozen cells may be responsible for the previously reported enhanced immunoglobulin-producing abilities of frozen cells from clinically healthy subjects and from patients with lung cancer.