Abstract
Successful separation of amylase-isoenzyme into fast-γ, pre-γ and three other unidentified fractions by agar gel electrophoresis prompted us to investigate isoenzyme pattern in patients with various clinical disorders or in post-surgical or post-mortem stage where an elevation of the enzyme was noticed.
The elevated enzyme activity was mainly located in the pre-γ fraction when the sera or urine of the patients with mumps was analyzed. A similar pre-γ-dominant isoenzyme pattern was noticed in the sera, pleural fluid or in the neoplastic tissue of the patients with bronchial carcinoma showing a considerable elevation of the enzyme activity, and also in some sera of post-surgical patients showing an elevation of the enzyme. The enzyme level in post-mortem sera separated from 1-atrium was generally higher than that from r-atrium and was mainly of pre-γ type.
These results are at least compatible with the notion that pre-γ isoenzyme of amylase is secreted from the bronchial tissue, accounting for the elevation of the enzyme in some patients with bronchial carcinoma or in post-mortem sera from 1-atrium. The elevation of the pre-γ amylase in post-surgical stage clearly indicates that the origin is not pancreas, but the salivary gland or bronchial tissue.
