Evaluation of histochemical observations of activity of acid hydrolases obtained with semipermeable membrane techniques: a combined histochemical and biochemical investigation 1. The histochemical investigation.

The reliability of enzyme histochemical observations of activities of acid hydrolases was investigated with a combined histochemical and biochemical study. Specimens of m. soleus, m. plantaris, m. gastrocnemius and diaphragm of normal and of vitamin E deficient rabbits were used. For the histochemical investigation, activity and localization of acid phosphatase, beta-glucuronidase, leucine aminopeptidase and E600 resistant non-specific arylesterase were examined with semipermeable membrane techniques. For the biochemical investigation, activity of acid phosphatase, beta-glucuronidase, cathepsin D, acid maltase and neutral maltase was determined. By means of stastical calculations the enzyme activities demonstrated with histochemical techniques were compared with the enzyme activities determined with biochemical techniques. In the present communication the histochemical findings are reported and discussed. From the histochemical findings it appeared that activity of the acid hydrolases investigated is strongly increased in both a granular and a diffuse pattern in skeletal muscle of vitamin E deficient rabbits. The statistical calculations of the histochemical findings clearly reveal that the increased activity of one acid hydrolase was highly significantly paralleled by an increased activity of a second acid hydrolase. Moreover the probability that the activity of all other histochemically studied acid hydrolases was significantly increased was rather high. The increase in activity of the acid hydrolases studied was the same in muscles with an aerobic or an anaerobic metabolism. Moreover there was no difference in activity and localization of the acid hydrolases in aerobic type I and anaerobic type II fibres. The localization of acid phosphatase and beta-glucuronidase activity muscle fibres mostly coincided. In cases where these enzymes were localized both centrally and in the subsarcolemnal areas of the muscle fibres, the activity of E600 resistant naphtholesterase was usually, and the activity of leucine aminopeptidase was exclusively located in the subsarcolemnal areas. All of the examined acid hydrolases were found to be present in the inflammatory exudate and in the connective tissue.