Net uptake of orthophosphate in Ehrlich ascites tumor cells in the presence of purine riboside may be rate limiting for the expansion of the pool of ribonucleotides.

Incubation with adenosine or with structural analogs thereof may in several cell types under some conditions result in the cellular accumulation of abundant amounts of the corresponding triphosphates. In the present work we have found that incubation of cells at high concentrations of orthophosphate (Pi) results in increased intracellular levels thereof, although they become not as high as the extracellular concentration. In the presence of purine riboside (nebularine, Pr) and high concentration of Pi the intracellular Pi is, however, kept at a low steady-state level, probably because it immediately upon uptake is being trapped primarily as the triphosphate of purine riboside. The latter compound accumulates at a constant rate for at least 1 h. The rate of accumulation of the sum of phosphate residues present in Pi, adenosine phosphates and purine riboside phosphates appears to be proportional to the extracellular concentration of Pi and to be highly dependent on pH (6.5 and 7.0 being optimal and 7.9 nonpermissible) but it is unaffected by substitution of Na+ by choline.