Abstract
Adenosine deaminase concentrations have been measured in the cells of 100 patients with acute leukaemia, 12 in blast transformation of chronic granulocytic leukaemia, 14 with chronic leukaemias and in 18 patients with lymphoma. The highest levels occurred in Thy-ALL (range 29.3–350, mean 109 units/10 8 cells) but raised levels were also frequent in non-B, non-T ALL whether or not these were cALL antigen positive and raised levels also occurred in 50% of patients with AML. ADA concentrations were also moderately raised in the cells of 7 of 8 patients with T-CLL and T-prolymphocytic leukaemia whereas subnormal levels were found in B-CLL. Among the lymph node samples, the highest ADA levels occurred in diffuse undifferentiated and lymphoblastic types, shown to be of T-cell origin by immunological markers. The results confirm that ADA concentrations are generally higher in leukaemias of thymic or T-cell origin than in equivalent cases of B-cell or myeloid cell origin. The use of ADA inhibitors for treatment of Thy-ALL and chronic T-cell disorders is discussed.
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