Enzymes of Purine Interconversions in Subfractions of Lymphocytes

Abstract

Previously described micromethods for the determination of purine interconversion enzyme activities in lymphocytes (1) enable us to analyse purine metabolism systematically in lymphocyte subfractions using a relatively small number of cells (500–5000). A relation between purine interconversion defects and immune dysfunctions has been established (2–4). The mechanism by which adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency leads to impairment of the B and T cell and purine nucleoside Phosphorylase (PNP) deficiency leads to T cell dysfunction is not yet completely understood. A better understanding of purine interconversions in B and T cell subfractions might help to obtain a better view on B or T cell specificity in these immune diseases. One of the possibilities to achieve this might be a systematic enzymological analysis of purine metabolism in T and non-T lymphocytes. Nine purine enzyme activities were measured in T and non-T lymphocyte subpopulations using 500–5000 cells per assay.