REUTILIZATION OF LYMPHOCYTE DNA BY CELLS OF INTESTINAL CRYPTS AND REGENERATING LIVER

Lymphoid cells from mice injected 54 hours and 30 hours earlier with (3)H-thymidine were washed and transfused into isogenic recipients at 29 to 30 hours after partial hepatectomy. The recipients were killed 28 to 30 hours later, and liver, intestine, Peyer's patch, spleen, and the transfused cells were examined in autoradiographs exposed 6 months. Approximately 80 per cent of the labeled transfused cells were classed as lymphocytes. The labeled DNA contained in the transfused cells was partitioned to about 14 times as many recipient liver and intestinal cells, appearing in 72 to 78 per cent of hepatocyte nuclei, in 30 to 35 per cent of liver reticuloendothelial nuclei, and in 90 to 95 per cent of intestinal crypt nuclei. The label was not comparably widespread in the lymphoid organs, but was limited to a few intensely labeled lymphocytes and a somewhat larger number of very weakly labeled cells. When heat-killed cells rather than living cells were transfused, intensely labeled lymphocytes were absent from the lymphoid organs, but the labeling of cells in the recipients was otherwise identical. The results suggest that (a) reutilized DNA is derived from dead cells, (b) reutilized DNA is mainly degraded to nucleosides and nucleotides, the usual immediate de novo DNA precursors, before reincorporation into DNA, and (c) DNA reutilization may occur in the lymphoid organs, but on a less active scale than in intestine or regenerating liver.