Micromolar deoxyadenosine inhibits leucine uptake during the 1st day of proliferation in mitogen-stimulated lymphocytes if adenosine deaminase is inhibited. This inhibition occurs before DNA synthesis begins, suggesting that deoxyadenosine can affect mitogenesis by mechanisms that do not involve ribonucleotide reductase inhibition. If deoxyadenosine addition to mitogen-stimulated lymphocytes is delayed to the 2nd or 3rd day post-stimulation, inhibition of proliferation is markedly reduced. Although the time dependence of deoxyadenosine toxicity resembles that of adenosine, these compounds appear to inhibit early protein synthesis by different mechanisms: 1) deoxycoformycin markedly potentiates deoxyadenosine but not adenosine; 2) deoxycytidine and thymidine reverse deoxyadenosine toxicity but do not alter adenosine toxicity.