Tonsils from 10 patients (18-40 years old), with chronic tonsillitis were studied by means of histological methods as well as by high pressure liquid chromatography. In 5 patients with decompensated forms of the disease, accompanied by heart impairments during 1-3 years, only slight alterations in epithelial and follicular parts of tonsils were observed, while pronounced destruction of tonsil cells was detected in other 5 patients suffering from repeated anginas. The following purine and pyrimidine derivatives were identified in faucial tonsil tissue of all the patients with chronic tonsillitis studied: adenine, guanine, adenosine, guanosine, inosine and uridine. Distinct increase in content of these derivatives as well as occurrence of xanthine and uric acid (non-identified in the first group of patients with chronic tonsillitis) was noted in the patients with maximal destruction of faucial tonsil cells.