Abstract
A rapid method for determining the concentration of ribonucleoside triphosphates in cell cultures is described. The pool sizes of the ribonucleoside triphosphates in uninfected MDCK cells were found to be, 0.28–0.59mm CTP, 0.96–1.6mm UTP, 6.5–7.8mm ATP, and 1.1–1.4mm GTP, depending on the condition of the cell-monolayer. Infection of MDCK cells with influenza A strains Victoria 3/75 x-47 or WSN resulted in insignificant changes in the ribonucleoside triphosphate concentrations. Treatment of infected and non-infected MDCK cells with ribavirin caused a decrease of 60 per cent in the GTP pool.