In order to find out whether some of serum enzyme levels could be used as markers for acute leukemia in children, activities of amylase, alkaline phosphatase, 5´-nucleotidase and ribonuclease (RNase) and positive rates of these enzymes as markers for acute leukemia in children were determined in serum of patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL).
Since the activity of neutral RNase in serum was greatly increased in children with acute leukemia, the serum enzyme was isolated and purified using a DEAE-cellulose column chromatography to investigate whether the enzyme specific to acute leukemia in children was present in serum of the patients.
The results obtained were as follows;
1. As compared with controls, the activity of serum amylase was significantly in-creased in patients with ALL, Old. but unchanged in patients with ALL. New. and ANLL.
2. The activity of serum alkaline phosphatase was unchanged in ALL, New. but significantly increased in ALL, Old. and ANLL, New. The positive rates of the enzyme as a marker for acute leukemia in children appeared to be high.
3. The activity of serum 5´-nucleotidase was significantly increased in all ALL. and ANLL. and the positive rates of the enzyme as a marker for acute leukemia in children were relatively high. The activity of this serum enzyme, per se, was con-siderably low either in controls and the patients with acute leukemia.
4. In all cases of leukemia studied in the present study, the activity of serum neutral RNase and the positive rates of the enzyme as a marker for acute leukemia in children were markedly elevated.
5. Serum neutral RNase in patient with acute leukemia in children was isolated in 4peaks by DEAE-cellulose column chromatography. New peaks not present in control serum was not observed in leukemic serum, but chromatographic pat-tern of serum RNase in leukemia was not ides tical with that in control serum.
Of the four serum enzymes studied in the present study, the activity of neutral RNase was markedly increased in leukemic serum and the positive rate of the en-zyme as a marker for acute leukemia in children was found to be high. The results suggest that the activity of serum neutral RNase could be used as a marker for acute leukemia in children. It could not, however, be confirmed that the RNase unique to leukemia was present in serum of the children with acute leukemia.
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