A comparative study of new substrates for the histochemical demonstration of acid phosphomonoesterase activity in tissues which secrete acid phosphatase.

Abstract

The histochemical demonstration of acid phosphatase activities against phosphoethanolamine (PEA), phosphorylcholine (PC), and D-ephedrine phosphate (DEP) are reported for a variety of rat tissues and are compared to acid beta-glycerophosphatase (beta GPase) activity. Intense acid beta GPase activity was demonstrated in all tissues examined. However, liver, kidney, intestine, spleen and bone marrow cells failed to exhibit any enzyme activity against PEA, PC, or DEP. In addition, significant differences in the hydrolysis of these substrates were noted among the tissues that did demonstrate activity (bone, tooth, oral mucosa, sebaceous gland, and prostate gland). These observations suggest that PEA, PC, and DEP are more specific substrates for acid phosphatase than beta GP and permit the differential localization of several distinct acid phosphatase isoenzymes.