Immunochemical Studies on Catalase

I. Assay of Catalase in Erythrocytes and Liver

Abstract

By means of an immunochemical assay as well as enzyme activity measurements, catalase in human erythrocytes, rat erythro-cytes and liver has been investigated.
In erythrocytes, the level of catalase determined immunochemically was propor-tional to that estimated from its activity, but in preparations from rat liver and ascites tumor cells, considerable discrepancies were seen between these two values.
Based on the results obtained, the authors have suggested the existence of protein(s) exhibiting no enzymatic activity but react-ing immunologically as catalase.
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Prof. N. Shimazono for his continuous encourage-ments and interest during the course of this work, and to Dr. K. Warabioka of the Cancer Institute, Tokyo, for his kind gift of tumor-bearing animals. Their thanks are also due to Dr. T. Peters, Jr. of the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, Cooperstown, New York, who gave helpful advices and discussions.