We investigated the effects of EGF, IL-1 and their combination on closure of wounds inflicted on rabbit corneal epithelial cell cultures and on migration of these cells in microchemotaxis chambers. In vitro corneal epithelial wound closure depended on the applied concentrations of EGF or IL-1. Twenty-four hours after wounding, the smallest wounds were obtained with 50 ng ml-1 of EGF and 1 ng ml-1 of IL-1, respectively. The effect on wound closure of combinations of EGF and IL-1 was additive even at concentrations that were optimal for each growth factor when applied alone. We found that EGF increases the chemotactic migration of rabbit corneal epithelial cells. Cell chemotaxis depended both on the concentration of EGF and on the number of cells applied in the assay. This response to EGF was seen at concentrations that were effective in the wound closure assay. The magnitude of the chemotactic migration response was much smaller with IL-1 than with EGF. Similarly to the observations on wound closure, the effect on cell chemotaxis of combinations of EGF and IL-1 was additive. The ability of EGF, and EGF/IL-1 combinations to modulate corneal epithelial cell chemotactic migration supports migration as a possible biological mechanism of the acceleration of corneal epithelium wound closure by these drugs.