The inhibition of S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase and accumulation of dATP in thymus, spleen and other tissues of mice treated with the adenosine deaminase inhibitor coformycin were studied in parallel with the competence of thymocytes and spleen leucocytes to undergo mitogen-induced transformation. Newborn mice were lethally sensitive to daily injections of coformycin, 0.2 mg/kg, whereas adult mice were not. Developmental profiles of enzymes of nucleoside metabolism showed adenosine deaminase and purine nucleoside phosphorylase to be greatest in thymus around day 20 and to decrease for animals older than 60 days. The most notable change was a 3-fold increase in spleen leucocyte adenosine deaminase activity between days 10 and 30. Adenosine deaminase activity was reduced to less than 10% of normal in tissues of newborns treated with coformycin for 12-14 days. S-Adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase was also reduced to 5-40% of normal with no evidence of tissue specificity. Both thymocytes and erythrocytes of coformycin-treated mice accumulated dATP whereas spleen leucocytes did not. For coformycin-treated mice, spleen leucocyte and thymocyte response to concanavalin A (Con A) was reduced to 20 and 60% of controls respectively. Coformycin, 3.6 microM, also potentiated the in vitro toxicity of adenosine and deoxyadenosine toward thymocytes or spleen leucocytes by approximately an order of magnitude. Our observations are consistent with dATP being involved in impairment of thymocyte responsiveness; however, it appears unlikely that either dATP elevation or S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase inhibition is involved in the mechanism of impairment of spleen leucocyte response by coformycin.