Immunohistochemical Localization of Adenosine Deaminase in Rat and Calf Tissues

Abstract

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) is an enzyme of a salvage pathway of purine metabolism. Its deficiency is associated with one of the hereditary forms of severe combined immunodeficiency (Giblett et al.,1972). The enzyme is likely involved in the differentiation of T lymphocytes (Ballet et al., 1976; Barton et al., 1979; Chechik et al., 1981), monocytes (Fischer et al., 1976), and epithelial cells(Trotta and Balis, 1977). In view of a possible role of ADA in cellular differentiation, it is important to identify which cells contain this enzyme and to establish their distribution in various tissues of intact organisms. Recently, we have shown that antibody to calf ADA can be used for the immunochemical and immunomorphologic detection of human, rat and mouse enzyme (Chechik and SenGupta, 1981). In the present study, we have employed the anti-calf ADA antibody for the immunohistochemical localization of ADA in the rat and calf.