Types and frequencies of in vivo mutation in the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl-transferase (HPRT) gene was studied in 142 T cell mutants from 78 healthy nonsmoking and smoking adults with a mean of 65 years. The HPRT mutant frequency in the nonsmokers was 18.7 +/- 12.0 x 10(-6), and in the smokers 26.6 +/- 18.5 x 10(-6) (mean +/- S.D., P < 0.01). Among 107 single base pair substitutions (SBS) in the coding region of the HPRT gene, one new mutable site, one novel nonsense mutation and three not previously reported SBS were identified. Transitions accounted for 59% of the SBS and transversions for 41%. GC > AT transitions were the predominant type of mutation, with 50% of all SBS. The mutations showed a nonrandom distribution along the coding sequence, with three significant hotspots at positions 143, 197 and 617 (13, 14 and 7 mutations, respectively). There was no difference between smokers and nonsmokers with regard to the distribution of mutations at these hotspot positions. However, 85% of the mutations at GC base pairs and 88% of the mutations at AT base pairs in smokers occurred at sites with guanine or thymine, respectively, in the nontranscribed DNA strand. Moreover, smokers had a higher frequency of transversions and lower frequency of transitions than nonsmokers did. Particularly, GC > TA transversions were increased in smokers (11%) compared to nonsmokers (2%), which suggests that tobacco-smoke induced adducts at guanine bases in the nontranscribed DNA strand contributes to the increase of HPRT mutation in smokers. Overall, these results were very similar to the mutational spectra in two younger study populations reported previously [K.J. Burkhart-Schultz, C.L. Thompson, I.M. Jones, Spectrum of somatic mutation at the hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) gene of healthy people, Carcinogenesis 17 (1996) 1871-1883; A. Podlutsky, A.-M. Osterholm, S.-M. Hou, A. Hofmaier, B. Lambert, Spectrum of point mutations in the coding region of the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase, Carcinogenesis 19 (1998) 557-566]. With the possible exception of an increase of mutations at hotspot position 143, and a decrease of 5-methylcytosine deamination mediated transitions at CpG-sites in the older individuals, there were no differences between the mutational spectra of old and young adults. In conclusion, both smoking and ageing seem to have minor influences on the spectrum of HPRT mutation in T cells.