Differences between lymphoid organs with respect to the phosphorylation of deoxycytidine and thymidine

The specific activity of thymidine kinase (TK) was higher in spleen than in thymus or unseparated tonsillar lymphocytes, while deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) specific activity was lowest in spleen and was much higher in thymus and in unseparated tonsillar lymphocytes. The ratio of dCK to TK was always high in thymus, in unseparated and in B-cell-enriched tonsillar lymphocytes (between 2 and 5), but it was always low in spleen (0.3-0.4). The difference in the pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylating enzyme activities of the thymus and spleen does not seem to be a mere consequence of different DNA synthesis rates, because the activities of DNA polymerase-alpha were practically the same in these organs. Unseparated and B-cell-enriched tonsillar lymphocytes resemble the thymus with respect to the ratio of dCK to TK activities, while the T-cell-enriched fraction contained 3-5 times lower activities of both enzymes. These results suggest that the metabolic pathways of CdR and TdR utilization for DNA synthesis differ in the lymphocyte populations independently from their rate of DNA polymerization and they may be in connection with their maturation processes.