Cellular acid phosphatase activity: correlation of cytochemical and biochemical measurements.

Methods for comparing results of cellular acid phosphatase activities obtained by quantitative cytospectrophotometry with those obtained by biochemical analysis are needed to express the cytospectrophotometric data in biochemical units. Since naturally occurring cells have differing amounts of acid phosphatase, enzyme activity was measured cytochemically and biochemically in polymorphonuclear leukocytes and peritoneal and alveolar macrophages from male rats to determine if these measurements permitted construction of a line correlating the two parameters. Cellular acid phosphatase activity, as measured cytospectrophotometrically and biochemically, increased proportionately with polymorphonuclear leukocytes having the lowest activities and alveolar macrophages the highest. These values when subjected to linear regression analysis fixed a line with a correlation coefficient of 0.95 demonstrating that cytochemical and biochemical activities of acid phosphatase activity can be correlated using naturally occurring cells.