Incorporation of hypoxanthine into adenine and guanine nucleotides by human platelets.

1. Incubation (1-4 h) of normal human washed platelets (5-11-10-8 per ml) with [8-14C] hypoxanthine at a concentration of 10-5 M resulted in a linear incorporation of radioactivity into adenine and guanine nucleotides. 2. Washed platelets from patients with Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, deficient in hypoxanthine: guanine phosphoribosyltransferase, failed to demonstrate any significant incorporation of [8-14C] hypoxanthine but did incorporate [8-14C] adenine like normal platelets under the same incubation condition. 3. These findings are taken to indicate that normal platelets have the enzymes necessary for salvage of hypoxanthine and that hypoxanthine: guanine phosphoribosyltransferase is the obligatory first step in this pathway.