The influence of age on the activities of some acid hydrolases in the rat liver and kidney

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Abstract
Activation of acid phosphatase by Triton X-100 has been demonstrated in both the cortical and medullary tissue of the rat kidney. Complete ischemia of the rat kidney produced a rapid rise in the free activity of acid phosphatase after 12 hours there was a fall in free activity and an even greater fall in total activity so that at 24 hours most of the acid phosphatase was free. There was also an initial rise in the free activity of arylsulphatase B but a plateau was reached after 4 hours. The total activity of this enzyme re-mained unaffected for the period of this experiment. The low ratio of free to total acid-phosphatase activity of liver and kidney in the infant rat increased in the first 2 months of life to a value that was essentially unchanged in rats of 6-7 and 12-14 months of age. In senile 23-25-month-old animals there was a further significant increase in the ratio in the kidney, whereas the ratio in the liver remained unchanged. Preliminary results indicated a similar increase in the ratio of free to total acid-deoxyribonuclease activity in the senile kidney. Arylsulphatase B showed no change in the ratio when 6-7rmonth-old rats were compared with 23-25-month-old animals, although both free and total activities were a little lower in the senile group. The findings are discussed from the viewpoint of the distribution of these enzymes within the cell and changes in their activity in degenerating tissues.