THE PURINE NUCLEOTIDE CONTENT OF LYMPHOCYTES FROM PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS

A procedure has been described for the preparation of T and non-T lymp hocyte populations. The purine nucleotide contents were analyzed by hi gh-performance liquid chromatography. In healthy subjects the pattern was shown to be different in the two cell populations. In patients wit h rheumatoid arthritis the findings as compared with the healthy subje cts were as follows; in T cells the RA patients showed a slight decrea se in di- and tri-phosphates, a more significant decrease of NAD and a n increase of AMP. The changes in non-T cells of the RA patients were highly significant and can be summarized as a generalized reduction of all nucleotides, except IMP which lends to increase, and GMP which re mains constant. The variations observed in nucleotide content do not i nvolve alterations of some parameters, such as the adenylates/guanylat es, the ATP/ADP and GTP/GDP ratios and the energy charges for adenylat es and guanylates, regarded as an index of cell energy and viability. It is possible that disturbances of purine metabolism, revealed throug h the determination of purine contents of lymphocytes, precede immunol ogical events and could be useful in the study of immunologic disorder s such as rheumatoid arthritis.