The epithelial cell invasiveness of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans strains of different restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) groups associated with disease conversion and asymptomatic carrier status in localized juvenile periodontitis was examined. Twenty clinical isolates were studied for their ability to invade KB monolayers, using the quantitative gentamicin killing assay. Five isolates were found to be invasive; five were not invasive; and the other 10 did not invade better than an invasion negative control Haemophilus aphrophilus strain ATCC 19415. Using probe-specific DNA fingerprinting, 11 strains were assigned to RFLP group II (disease–associated); 4 to RFLP type XIII (carrier status-associated); and the others to groups III, IV, V and VII. Eight isolates, all RFLP group II, were leukotoxin producers as determined by PCR amplification of the lkt promoter region. No correlation was found between invasiveness and RFLP group. Leukotoxin production was more associated with noninvasive than invasive strains.