Acid alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase: presence of activity in bovine and human T and B lymphocytes.

Non-specific acid alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase (ANAE) activity was demonstrated in a majority of bovine peripheral blood lymphocytes, confirming and extending the observations on murine and human lymphocytes made by previous workers. Simultaneous study of both ANAE activity and spontaneous erythrocyte (E) or erythrocyte-antibody-complement (EAC) rosetting capability of the same bovine lymphocytes showed directly that, while 64.2 +/- 4.6 (SEM) % of bovine lymphocytes capable of forming E rosettes were ANAE positive, 38.3 +/- 0.8% of those forming EAC rosettes were also ANAE positive. Similar studies of human peripheral blood lymphocytes showed also that, while 80.6 +/- 2.2% of the lymphocytes capable of forming E rosettes were ANAE positive, 44.1 +/- 2.6% of EAC forming lymphocytes were ANAE positive. Thus the presence of ANAE activity in a majority of T lymphocytes and a significant proportion of B lymphocytes of both human and bovine peripheral blood is indicated. Human and bovine lymphocytes from phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated cultures demonstrated greatly enhanced intensity of ANAE activity.