Activities of acid deoxyribonuclease (DNase), acid ribonuclease (RNase), neutral RNase and alkaline RNase were determined in serum and cancer tissues of patients with epidermoid carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, small cell carcinoma and large cell carcinoma of lungs to find out the interrelationships of the enzymes between serum and the cancer tissues and the possibility of using these enzyme parameters for biochemical and diagnostic markers for the lung cancer. Also investigated were presence of RNases specific to lung cancar, separating serum RNase proteins by a phosphocellulose column chromatography.
1) Activity of acid DNase increased significantly in the tissue of all types of lung cancer tissues (p<0.05), but was not detected in serum.
2) Activity of acid RNase in the tissue increased in all four types of lung cancer by the average increment of 43% (p<0.05). The activity of neutral RNase, however, increased only in the types of small cell and large cell carcinoma.
3) Activity of acid, neutral and alkaline RNases in the serum of the patients of lung cancer showed significant increase by the average increment of 69%, 59% and 70%, respectively(all p<0.01), suggesting that the activity of serum RNase might be used as a diagnostic marker in the lung cancer. The increase in the activity of the serum RNase was more prominent in the epidermoid carcinoma than in other types of lung cancer.
4) Serum proteins of epidermoid lung cancer was separated by a phosphocellulose column chromatography into 10 peaks, of which 6 peak proteins exhibited RNase activity. No proteins and RNases specific to the lung cancer was observed. Multiple activation and suppression of proteins and RNases normally present in serum were seen in the can cer serum, suggesting the multifunctional roles of RNase in the cancer.
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