This study investigated human bone marrow endothelial cells (BMEC) chemoattractive activity in relation to haematopoietic cell trafficking. BMEC-conditioned medium induced chemoattraction of haematopoietic progenitor cells. Migration was not inhibited by pretreating the cells with pertussis toxin (PTX) or 12G5, indicating that the chemoattractive activity was not dependent on stromal-cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1). Spontaneous migration, but not SDF-1-mediated chemotaxis of haematopoietic progenitors, was better supported by BMEC as compared with umbilical vein endothelial cells. The superior migration was abolished by pretreating the cells with PTX, indicating that BMEC-derived SDF-1 favours bone marrow endothelium, with better transmigration of haematopoietic progenitors.