The regulation of nucleotide metabolism of immune cells: papaverine induced nucleotide breakdown.

During a period of prelabeling of mouse thymus cells with any nucleoside at 4 degrees C, nucleoside phosphates accumulated, but no nucleic acid synthesis occurred. Elevating the temperature to 37 degrees C then led to incorporation into the respective nucleic acid reaching a maximum in 5--15 min. Papaverine inhibited this incorporation (IC50:50 muM) and caused an efflux of label into the medium as a nonphosphorylated product. The responses of the different nucleotide phosphate pools showed more dependency on the base then the sugar moeity. The effect of papaverine could not be altered or mimicked by deprivation of oxygen, glucose, or calcium. Mouse spleen cells responded like thymocytes to papaverine, but rat GH3 pituitary cell DNA syntesis was only transiently inhibited with no concomitant efflux of 3H into the medium. As expected, thymus cellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP), determined by the luciferin-luciferase reaction, decreased in the presence of papaverine; suprisingly, extracellular ATP fell as well. The results suggest that decreases in cellular ATP of mouse thymus cells leads to reductions of all nucleoside phosphates and the efflux of the resultant nucleosides. Papaverine may effect a decrease in the ATP levels by activating a phosphohydrolase rather than, or in addition to, the previously suggested inhibition of mitochondrial electron transport.