抄録
Alkaline phosphatase is generally known to exist widely distributed in the vital body and is concerned with the synthesis and decomposition of phosphate compounds that play an important role in the metabolism. Activity of this enzyme is said to be particularly strong in the tissues active in their metabolism. ROBISON et al. [1] had earlier given their findings on the relation between alkaline phosphatase and dental calcification and ever since, studies dealing with alkaline phosphatase in dental pulp have been conducted with a view to throwing light on the calcifying mechanism of teeth.
Biochemical study on this alkaline phosphatase in dental pulp began with YAGIU [2] and OGAWA [3], MOTOMURA [4], SAITO et al. [5], MISEI et al. [6] and KANNO et al. [7] have been researchers in his wake. Among them, KIMIZUKA [8] purified alkaline phosphatase in dental pulp of rabbits through the specific activity and gave report on its enzymological properties. Localization of this enzyme has been histochemically attested to by many workers in the field and published research findings are numerous [9-29]. Although the method of histochemical evidence has advantageous features, there exists a danger of human elements creeping in through the inactivation of enzyme at a fixed procedure, diffusion or resorption of intermediate products in the staining process. Also we must be constantly on our guard against its distribution and detection peculiarities, as the result of histochemistry is only semi-quantitative. Therefore, any set of data needs to be very carefully handled for the analytical purpose. The present study is concerned with a method devised by the authors which is capable of measuring alkaline phosphatase activity in a sample of minute quantity. With this method, they examined the distribution of alkaline phosphatase in the dental pulp in terms of histoand biochemical light.
