Erythrocyte adenosine deaminase, purine nucleoside phosphorylase and phosphoribosyltransferase activity in patients with Down's syndrome.

The erythrocyte adenosine deaminase, nucleoside phosphorylase, hypoxanthineguanine phosphoribosyltransferase and adenine phosphoribosyltransferase activities and plasma urate concentrations were measured in 20 cases of Down's syndrome and in 20 age- and sex-matched control subjects. The mean erythrocyte adenosine deaminase and adenine phosphoribosyltransferase activities and plasma urate concentrations were significantly higher in Down's syndrome subjects than in controls (p less than 0.001, p less than 0.01 and p less than 0.001, respectively). In all subjects studied there was a positive correlation between the erythrocyte adenosine deaminase activity and plasma urate concentration (r = 0.488, p less than 0.005). The concentrations of the erythrocyte adenine nucleotides, AMP, ADP and ATP, did not differ in Down's syndrome (n = 10) from those of control subjects (n = 10). The results suggest that the increase of plasma urate concentrations is a consequence of the increase in adenosine deaminase activity in Down's syndrome patients.