By means of microsurgical lymph cannulation human skin lymph derived from the late phase of an elicitation reaction to diphenylcyclopropenone was sampled. Cells were isolated by centrifugation and then treated with mouse anti-CD1a monoclonal antibodies and sheep antimouse antibody-coated Dynabeads. Ultrastructural and immunocytochemical analyses revealed anti-CD1a/Dynabead-rosetted CD1a- and protein S-100-positive cells which did not express monocyte surface markers, but surface antigens such as HLA-DR, ICAM-1 and, in part, LFA-3. In comparison to freshly prepared human epidermal Langerhans cells (LC), a large fraction of these cells contained no or markedly fewer Birbeck granules and exhibited extensive ruffling of the surface. These data suggest that the phenotype of LC in skin lymph derived from the elicitation phase of allergic contact dermatitis is similar to LC cultured in vitro. In the functional concept of LC of our time, these cells correspond to the dendritic cells designated as "veiled".