Acid phosphatase comparative distribution

The yield of acid phosphatase was 11%, as compared with 30% for aryl sulfatase and 15% for ribonuclease. Obviously, in the attempt to obtain pure preparations of intracellular components, it is inevitable that losses be encountered. Such procedures are therefore not suited for obtaining an estimate of the quantitative distribution of intracellular components. Approximately 5-9% of the lysosomal enzymes—aryl sulfatase, acid phosphatase, and ribonuclease—were present in the free form. The remaining 91-95% of the activities of these enzymes were in the latent form and required alteration of the permeability or disruption of the lysosomal membrane to become active. 

The centrifugal method of separation employed by Van Lancker and Holtzer (V2) was among the earlier ones in the field, and there was probably considerable cross contamination of the fractions. Nonetheless, the distribution seems more disperse than that obtained by de Duve et al. (DIO) for rat liver with a comparable method. For example, in the case of the mouse pancreas the small mitochondrial fractions, c, d, and e, obtained by centrifugation between 17 X 10 and 263 X 10 gr-min contained 27% of the acid phosphatase and the succeeding microsomal fractions, f and g, obtained by centrifugations between 263 X 10 g-min and 3170 X 10 g-min, contained 24% of the acid phosphatase (V2). For rat liver, comparable fractions, obtained by centrifugation between 33 X 10 to 250 X 10 g-min and 250 X 10 to 3000 X 10 g-min contained 41 and 20%, respectively (DIO). 

Comparative distribution of acid phosphatase, nonspecific esterase and /3-glucuronidase in the placenta and fetal membranes (Christie, 1968) and some aspects of protea.se and /3-glucuronidase in the placental formation in rats have been reported by Autuori (1967). 

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