Cyclosporin A (CsA) and FK-506 have similar immunosuppressive activity profiles and cyclophilin-like intracellular targets. Since CsA can reverse the multidrug resistance of tumor cells showing P-glycoprotein-mediated drug efflux, the possible resistance-modulating activity of FK-506 was evaluated in vitro with multidrug-resistant P388 cells and their sensitive parental controls. Higher concentrations of FK-506 than CsA were needed to achieve a similar degree of chemosensitization, suggesting that FK-506 might interact less efficiently than CsA with the P-glycoprotein expressed in multidrug-resistant tumor cells. However, FK-506 was active on a broader range of concentrations than CsA, particularly because of direct cytostatic effects of CsA which appeared at concentrations only slightly higher than those required to show a significant resistance-modulating activity.