A STUDY ON L-LEUCYL-β-NAPHTHYLAMINE HYDROLASE ACTIVITIES IN UROLOGICAL DISEASES
1969 Volume 60 Issue 11 Pages 1009-1032
Details
1969 Volume 60 Issue 11 Pages 1009-1032
L-Leucyl-β-naphthylamine hydrolase (LNH) activities in serum and urine were investigated in 35 healthy adults and 119 patients with various urological or renal disorders. The activities were determined by the method of Goldbarg and Rutenburg (1958). In some of them, histochemical investigations were made on the pathological specimens obtained at operation or through biopsy, according to the method of Nachlas et al. (1957). An additional experimental investigation on acute renal failure was made in dogs, in which mercury bichloride was administered intravenously.
The results were as follows: -
(1) In the healthy adults the serum LNH activities were 98.0 units on the average with standard deviation of ±41.5. The urinary LNH activities in the male ranged from 45.5 to 192.5 units a day, the average being 120.8 with standard deviation of ±43.2, while those in the female ranged from 13.8 to 119.0 units a day, the average being 51.5±58.2.
(2) The serum LNH activities did not show any significant changes in patients with urological or renal diseases.
(3) A significant elevation was verified in the urinary activities of the patients with malignant renal neoplasm, renal tuberculosis and acute renal failure. No significant changes of urinary LNH activities were verified in the patients with benign renal tumor, essential renal hematuria, renal pelvic neoplasm, ureteral neoplasm, hydronephrosis, and renal or ureteral calculi.
(4) In 30 per cent of the patients with bladder carcinoma the urinary LNH activities were elevated, but histochemical examinations of the specimens did not show any activity in the tumor tissue.
(5) Though histochemically some activities were verified in the tissue specimens of prostatic carcinoma or benign adenoma, the serum and urinary LNH activities revealed no significant elevation.
It was suggested that the urinary LNH activities might be of diagnostic and therapeutic value in some of the urological disorders, especially in relation with renal tubular damages.
