Human prostatic acid phosphatase: purification, characterization, and optimization of conditions for radioimmunoassay.

Prostatic acid phosphatase was isolated from benign hypertrophic prostate tissue by ammonium sulfate precipitation and affinity chromatography procedures. The purified enzyme was characterized by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and shown to have a cluster of protein spots with an apparent molecular weight of 48 000 at pI 5.9 to 6.3 in 9 mol/l urea. The specific activity of the purified enzyme was 723 and 659 U/mg protein with alpha-naphthyl phosphate at 30 degrees C and para-nitrophenyl phosphate at 37 degrees C respectively. An antibody to the purified enzyme was raised in rabbits and used in a radioimmunoassay (RIA). The use of a phosphate buffer, pH 6.6, and iodination of prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) by the Bolton-Hunter procedure improved the precision of the assay when compared to RIA's using a phosphate buffer, pH 7.0 or 7.3, or PAP iodinated by a chloramine-T procedure. The former RIA displaced 50% of the tracer at 2 micrograms of enzyme per liter of serum. The between-run coefficient of variation for 11 assays ranged from 3.9-7.7% with serum at 1.3 to 5.6 micrograms PAP/l.