Abstract
IN 1953 Gomori1 discovered a tissue enzyme which hydrolysed chloracetoxy naphthoic acid anilide. Mast cells were found to have a large amount of this enzyme activity. Based on the demonstration that the time required to achieve a given colour intensity in an enzymatic histochemical system is inversely proportional to enzyme activity2, it was estimated that mast cells had 30 times the activity of liver and five times the activity of neutrophiles. Later, Benditt and Arase3 were able to show that the enzyme in mast cells strikingly resembled bovine α-chymotrypsin. The present work has carried the resemblance further and examined the distribution of the enzyme in the rat, utilizing a newly synthesized series of esters of naphthoic acid anilide (‘Napthol AS’).
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References
Gomori, G., J. Histochem. and Cytochem., 1, 469 (1953).
Benditt, E. P., and Arase, M., J. Histochem. Cytochem., 6, 431 (1958).
Benditt, E. P., and Arase, M., J. Exp. Med., 110, 451 (1959).
Neurath, H., and Schwert, G. W., Chem. Rev., 46, 69 (1950).
Holt, S. J., Hobbiger, E. E., and Pawan, G. L. S., J. Biophys. and Biochem. Cytol., 7, 383 (1960).
Burstone, M., Amer. J. Clin. Path., 28, 429 (1959).
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LAGUNOFF, D., BENDITT, E. Histochemical Examinations of Chymotrypsin-like Esterases. Nature 192, 1198–1199 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/1921198a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1921198a0
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