The distribution of adenosine deaminase, purine nucleotide phosphorylase and 5'-nucleotidase in subpopulations of thymocytes, bone marrow cells and other lymphoid organs in mice.

Lymphocyte populations of BALB/c mice were obtained from bone marrow, thymus, spleen, peripheral blood and lymphoid nodes. Subpopulations of thymocytes and bone marrow T-lymphocyte precursors were separated by density gradient centrifugation. The activity of adenosine deaminase (ADA) undergoes a marked increase during the evolution of bone marrow T-cell precursors to immature thymocytes, and a decrease with thymocytes maturation. The peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) present the lower activity of the enzyme, and lymphocytes from spleen (SL) and lymphoid nodes (LNL) show activity in the order of that in mature thymocytes. The activity of purine nucleotide phosphorylase (PNP) in the different lymphocytes populations experiments a very little variation with the T-lymphocyte differentiation. With the evolution of T-lymphocyte precursors to immature thymocytes the 5'-nucleotidase (5'-NT) activity experiment a 2-fold decrease. The thymocytes maturation is correlated with an increase in the activity of 5'-NT. The PBL present the maximal activity of the enzyme, whereas in spleen and LNL its levels of activity are in the range of that in mature thymocytes and bone marrow T-cell precursors respectively.