[Thymidine kinase activity, intracellular TTP content and DNA synthesis in transplantable hepatomas and lymphoid tissue of the host].

The rapidly growing mouse Gaelstein hepatomas 22 and 22a and rat Zajdela hepatoma are characterized both by a high thymidine kinase activity, increased TTP pool and intense 14C-thymidine incorporation into DNA. This is indicative of an intensive thymidylate biosynthesis via a short, "salvage" pathway. The predominance of this pathway for thymidylate is also characteristic for the spleens of normal animals. On the contrast, in rat and mouse thymus, where the TTP pool was the highest of all normal tissues studied, the thymidine kinase activity and thymidine incorporation into DNA were relatively low. The growth of the three hepatomas under study induces involution of tumour carrier thymus, manifested in a decrease of the TTP pool and the rate of labelled thymidine incorporation into DNA, as well as in a 4-fold decrease of the thymidine kinase activity of rat thymus. In the spleen of mice carrying ascite 22a and solid 22 hepatomas an entirely opposite response to the tumour growth was observed, i. e. in the former case the organ weight and all indices of DNA synthesis were sharply reduced, while in the latter case they were substantially enhanced. In the spleen of Zajdela hepatoma carriers the DNA synthesis is suppressed as can be evidenced from the decrease of labelled thymidine incorporation into DNA and of TTP pool; the weight of organ and the thymidine kinase activity, however, exceed the normal level more than 2-fold.