Comparison of two techniques for the quantitative measurement of acid phosphatase in normal and regenerating epithelium of the female hairless hamster.

Two methods have been employed for measuring acid phosphatase activity in normal and regenerating epithelium of the female hairless hamster. The first method entails histochemical preparation followed by television scanning microdensitometric measurements using a Quantimet 72OD. The second method involves incubation of freeze-dried epidermis in a suitable substrate medium followed by measurement of the fluorescence of the released product by a spectrophotofluorometer. The results were compared against each other by performing best-fit polynomial regression line analysis to the data produced by both methods. A correlation coefficient of 0.99 was obtained when interpolated data from the two 'best-fit' curves were compared with each other. This indicates that the histochemical technique and the subsequent measurement using television scanning microdensitometry is 'quantitative' and can, therefore, be employed in quantitative histochemistry.