We have studied the purine nucleotide metabolism in the following cell lines: a), H9 (continuous human T-cell line) and H9/HTLV-III (H9 cell line, infected with RT+ HIV-I virus); b), A3.01 (human lymphoblastoid cell line CD4+) and 8E51 (line A3.01 permanently transfected with RT-HIV-I virus). Purine metabolism was studied by evaluating the content of the most important ribonucleotides (AMP-GMP-IMP-NAD-ADP-GDP-ATP-GTP) and their ratios. We determined several differences between the cell lines before and after viral infection. All nucleotides except triphosphates were reduced in H9/HTLV-III with respect to H9 cells; in 8E51, however, triphosphates were markedly reduced, while monophosphates increased with respect to A3.01 uninfected cells. Also the ratios exhibited different behaviors, for example the total adenine nucleotides total guanine nucleotides ratio (sigma A/sigma G) was enhanced in H9/HTLV-III cells with respect to H9 and unaltered in 8E51 with respect to A3.01 cells. We may conclude that the HIV-I virus strongly influences the purine nucleotide metabolism of the host cells and that the changes are different when induced either by RT+ or RT- virus.