A STUDY OF ARYLSULFATASE A IN HUMAN URINE

Abstract

Arylsulfatase A activity was measured in urine from patients with various genitourinary tract disorders.
When the enzyme activity was expressed on the basis of volume or protein amount of urine, no significant difference was found between normal and affected urine. However, the arylsulfatase A in affected urine was significantly heat labile as compared with control urine enzyme, although the heat stability test at 62.5°C the for 10min could not differentiate the urinary tract disorders each other.
Upon isoelectric focusing, the pI (5.2-5.3) for the arylsulfatase A of nephrostomic urine, which showed remarkably lower activity and lower heat stability than that of normal voided urine in patients with congenital obstruction of the pelvi-ureteric junction and voided urine in a half of patients with advanced bladder cancer or renal cell carcinoma was clearly different from the pI (4.6-4.7) of the enzymes in healthy and the other urogenital disorders. Furthermore, the nephrostomic and voided urine enzyme were found to have different immunological characteristics. These results suggest that the arylsulfatase A from nephrostomic and voided urine is an enzyme of a different type.