Purine metabolism in human lymphocytes.

In peripheral human blood lymphocytes the uptake and metabolism of adenine, guanine, and hypoxanthine was investigated. This was achieved by incubation of purified lymphocytes with 14C-purine bases, separation of cells from the incubation medium by a rapid filtration technique, and subsequent separation of the acid soluble material by thin-layer chromatography. No perferential uptake for one of the purine bases was observed. In all cases only traces of 14C-purine bases not added originally and labeled nucleosides could be demonstrated. Approximately 2/3 of adenine and 1/2 of guanine or hypoxanthine were converted to nucleotides. Separation of formed nucleotides showed that adenine and guanine were metabolized mainly to their corresponding nucleotides; hypoxanthine was converted to a considerable amount to adenine nucleotides and only to a small proportion into its own nucleotides. These results demonstrate the predomonance of adenine nucleotide formation in normal human lymphocytes.