Increased serum alpha-L-fucosidase and beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase activities in diabetic, cirrhotic and gastric cancer patients.

The activities of several glycosidases (alpha-L-fucosidase, alpha-D-mannosidase, alpha-D-galactosidase, beta-D-galactosidase, beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase and beta-D-glucuronidase) were determined in human sera from 10 normal subjects and in three groups each of 10 patients with diabetes mellitus, hepatic cirrhosis and gastric carcinoma. The results show significantly higher activities in the patients for alpha-L-fucosidase (p less than 0.001) and for beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase (p less than 0.1, p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.05, respectively), and smaller or not significantly greater values for the other glycosidases.