title: A critical comparison of commonly used procedures for the assay of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase in crude tissue extracts.
abstract: Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) is a non-template directed DNA polymerase normally found in vertebrate thymus and bone marrow. Quantitative assay of TdT activity is being widely used as a tool in the differential diagnosis of acute leukemias in man. Clinical specimens of blood and bone marrow often contain 10(7) or fewer cells and require a specific and rapid assay for transferase which can be carried out in crude cell extracts. Commonly used assay methods do not meet these requirements, but can be easily modified to do so.
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D004247:DNA; D004254:DNA Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000032:analysis*; D007700:Kinetics; D008722:Methods; D013698:Templates, Genetic
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D004254:DNA Nucleotidyltransferases