The in vitro and in vivo effects of lead on delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase and pyrimidine 5'-nucleotidase.

The in vitro and in vivo effects of lead on the activity of pyrimidine-5'-nucleotidase (P5N, E. C. 3.1.3.5) and delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALA-D, E.C. 4.2.1.24) were studied. Incubation of blood with lead at concentrations of up to 3 mumol/l (about 60 micrograms/dl) did not appear to affect the activity of P5N, while the activity of ALA-D decreased dose-dependently with lead. Administration of lead caused a marked and rapid suppression of ALA-D in rats. The suppression of lead on P5N appeared to be a rather slow process. The decrease of its activity only came into effect 20 days after administration with lead. these findings suggest that lead induced P5N inhibition is a slow process while the suppression of ALA-D activity occurs much earlier.