The characteristics of terbium-161 diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid (DTPA) labelled octreotide with respect to specific binding to somatostatin (octreotide) receptors on rat brain cortex membranes, biological activity, uptake and excretion by isolated perfused rat livers and metabolism in vivo in normal and tumour-bearing rats were determined and compared to those of indium-111 DTPA-octreotide. The results of the binding studies demonstrate that 161Tb-DTPA-octreotide is a high-affinity radioligand for somatostatin receptors, with an affinity comparable to that of 111In-DTPA-octreotide. Rat growth hormone secretion inhibition experiments showed that 161Tb-DTPA-octreotide has a similar potency to 111In-DTPA-octreotide. 161Tb-DTPA-octreotide appeared to be taken up even less by the isolated perfused rat liver than 111In-DTPA-octreotide, as almost no tracer disappeared from the perfusion medium. Furthermore, hardly any radioactivity was found in the liver, and excretion into the bile was negligible. The biodistribution studies showed that for octreotide receptor-positive organs, such as pancreas and adrenals, uptake of 161Tb-DTPA-octreotide is lower then that of 111In-DTPA-octreotide. However, as the clearance from the blood of the former compound is faster than that of the latter, the tissue/blood ratio is higher in the case of 161Tb-DTPA-octreotide than with 111In-DTPA-octreotide. Furthermore, these studies demonstrated that the uptake of 161Tb-DTPA-octreotide by the renal tubular cells after glomerular filtration can be reduced by administration of lysine or sodium maleate. Increase in urine production before and during the experiment had no effect on the kidney uptake of 161Tb-DTPA-octreotide.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)