Abstract
The relationship between pH and δ-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) dehydratase activity in both erythrocyte and liver tissue was studied in men and mice exposed to lead and compared with that in the normal subjects.
When exposed to lead, the pH optimum of ALA dehydratase activity in the liver and blood shifts to a more acid pH than occurs in normal subjects. The exposure to lead also causes depression of this enzyme activity. Especially, in the workers who were exposed to lead during a long term, the change in the pH activity curve of erythrocyte ALA dehydratase caused by lead was reversed to approximately normal by heating the hemolysate or by incubating in the presence of dithiothreitol.
