Adenosine metabolism in permanent lymphocyte lines and in erythrocytes of patients with the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome.

Adenosine metabolism was studied in permanent lymphocyte cell lines and in erythrocytes of L.N. patients and compared with that of normal subjects. It was found that L.N. lymphocytes incorporated adenosine into purine ribonucleotides in spite of the fact that they cannot incorporate inosine or hypoxanthine, the major metabolites of adenosine. These findings suggest that adenosine may be a potentially important salvage pathway for purines and a source of IMP and guanine nucleotides in L.N. cells.