Biochemical characterization of alkaline phosphatase in guinea pig thymus.

1. Alkaline phosphatase (orthophosphoric-monoester phosphohydrolase (alkaline optimum), EC 3.1.3.1) in guinea pig thymus was extracted optimally in 10 mM Tris - HCl buffer at pH 8.0 containing 5 g/l Triton X-100. 2. alpha-Glycerophosphate, beta-glycerophosphate and phenolphthalein monophosphate were hydrolyzed by thymus extract with a pH optimum at 9.8-10.0, whereas p-nitrophenylphosphate and alpha-naphthylphosphate were hydrolyzed with pH optima at 10.7-10.8 and beta-naphthylphosphate at pH 11.2. P-Nitrophenylphosphate and phenolphthalein monophosphate proved to be the most suitable substrates. 3. Alkaline phosphatase was effectively inhibited by EDTA, Zn2+, histidine and urea therefore resembling the inhibition characteristics of alkaline phosphatase in the placenta and kidney, but not that in the liver and intestine, which differed markedly. 4. DEAE-cellulose chromatography and polyacrylamide disc electrophoresis revealed three enzyme peaks which did not differ in their substrate specificities and modifier characteristics. 5. Polyacrylamide disc electrophoresis of thymus, serum, placenta, kidney, liver, bone and intestine revealed no alkaline phosphatase bands definitely unique to thymus.     

The ontogenetic evolution of acidic phosphoprotein phosphatase activity in the lymphatic tissue and the liver of the rat.

We have shown that an acidic phosphoprotein phosphatase (APP-ase) has a different pattern of postnatal maturation in the spleen, thymus and liver of rats and mice. The APP-ase activity increases during the first eight months of postnatal life in the spleen of rats (when it attains an 8--10 times higher value than at birth) and up to the sixth month of life in the spleen of mice. It increases considerably during the first two weeks of postnatal life in the thymus of rats and mice; in the liver of rats it reaches maximum activity before birth, but continues to increase up to the sixth month of postnatal life in the liver of mice. The results show also that the APP-ase from the spleen, thymus and liver of rats is equally active in dephosphorylating ATP and phenyl phosphate during the whole life span of rats, but not in relation to beta-glycerol phosphate. After analyzing its substrate specificity, its pH dependence in relation to different substrates, its kinetic properties, as well as its behaviour towards ascorbic acid and different inhibitors (sodium tungstate and sodium molybdate, L-tartrate, L-phenylalanine and L-cysteine) we have come to the conclusion that the rat spleen APP-ase is different from "nonspecific" acid and alkaline phosphatases and very similar to the EC 3.1.3.16 acid phosphoprotein phosphatase.     

Alkaline phosphatase in hematopoietic tumor cell lines of the mouse: high activity in cells of the B lymphoid lineage

Alkaline phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.1) was assayed in a large number of cultured mouse tumor cell line using p-nitrophenylphosphate as the substrate. Of 19 lines of the B lymphoid lineage, including Abelson pre-B, B lymphoma, and plasma cell tumor lines, all but 1 had substantial activity averaging 407 nmol/min/mg protein (with a range from 5 to 900). Nine T lymphoid and 9 nonlymphoid hematopoietic lines examined had low activity of 0.7 to 4.2 nmol/min/mg protein. The enzyme was markedly enriched in plasma membrane preparations from the B lymphoid cells, but not in those from most T lymphoma cells. The activity of another plasma-membrane-bound enzyme, gamma-glutamyl transferase, did not vary systematically with the type of cell line but was exceptionally high in 1 T lymphoma line. Investigation of pH dependence and susceptibility to inhibition by L-phenylalanine and L-homoarginine indicated similarity of the alkaline phosphatase from B cell lines to the enzyme recoverable from normal mouse kidney, placenta, bone marrow, and lymphoid organs. The enzyme seems to provide a useful marker for tumor lines of the B lymphoid lineage and for their plasma membranes.     

Thymocyte/stromal cell chimaerism in allothymus-grafted Xenopus: developmental studies using the X. borealis fluorescence marker

These experiments employ the X. borealis (quinacrine-fluorescence) cell marker to illustrate that froglet (normal or in vivo-irradiated) thymuses, alloimplanted to 4- to 6-week-old, 7-day-thymectomized hosts, become filled with host lymphoid cells, while a range of thymic stromal cell types (e.g. epithelial derivatives and reticuloendothelial cells) remain donor derived. A time-course study of 4 micron historesin-embedded sections reveals that for normal thymus implants, host cells begin to immigrate in good number only after metamorphosis. In contrast, 3000 rad-irradiated thymus implants begin to be repopulated with host lymphocytes within 2 weeks postimplantation, when hosts are still at a late larval stage of development. Despite rapid colonization by host lymphoid cells, irradiated thymuses remain small and often disappear in early adult life. Donor-derived lymphocytes frequent the blood and both the red pulp and perifollicular regions of the spleen following normal thymus implantation, whereas such thymic emigrants were not seen in the periphery of thymectomized hosts grafted with irradiated thymus glands.     

Relationships between terminal transferase expression, stem cell colonization, and thymic maturation in the avian embryo: studies in thymic chimeras resulting from homospecific and heterospecific grafts

Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) can be detected in 11- to 12-day-old embryonic chick thymuses 5 to 6 days after the first influx of lymphoid stem cells into the thymic rudiment. To identify the main factors of TdT induction, grafting experiments were devised in such a way that the age of the grafted thymus and that of the host were different. Uncolonized embryonic chick thymuses were grafted into chick hosts of different ages. Under these conditions, lymphoid differentiation arose from host lymphoid stem cells (LSC) invading the thymic rudiment. TdT immunofluorescent detection in the first wave of thymocytes showed that the percentages of TdT+ cells were related to the total age of the explant and not to the age of the host (11 to 17 days). Similar results were obtained when the chick thymic rudiment was transplanted into quail embryos, showing that quail LSC have TdT inducibility similar to that of chick LSC while developing in a chick thymic environment. Colonized chick thymuses were also grafted into quail embryos to compare the TdT inducibility of the first lymphoid generation (of chick type) and of the second (of quail origin), taking advantage of the different chromatin structure of quail and chick cells. In these experiments, the majority of chick cells remained TdT negative for as long as 10 days, whereas most lymphocytes of the second generation became TdT+ soon after their arrival in the grafted thymus. Therefore, during embryonic life, most TdT+ cells were derived from the second wave of stem cells, but some early stem cells were also able to acquire the enzyme. In a final series of experiments, early thymic rudiments were cultured in vitro with 14- to 16-day-old bone marrow and then grafted into 3-day-old host embryos. Under these conditions, bone marrow LSC contributed to a variable proportion of the first generation of thymocytes. The percentage of TdT+ cells among the progeny of these bone marrow stem cells was found to be two times higher than that of thymocytes derived from host LSC. These results suggest that, in addition to intrathymic environmental factors, the origin of LSC influences the frequency of TdT expression in their progeny.     

Cytochemical Localization of Certain Phosphatases in Escherichia coli

Cytochemical studies of Escherichia coli at the light and electron microscopic levels have revealed alkaline phosphatase, hexose monophosphatase, and cyclic phosphodiesterase reaction products in the periplasmic space and at the cell surface. In preparations for both light and electron microscopy, reaction product filled polar caplike enlargements of the periplasmic space, such as those described in plasmolyzed cells, indicating significant terminal concentrations of these enzymes; dense substance was often seen within these polar caps in morphological specimens. Staining of the bacterial surface was commonly encountered, but could represent artifactual accumulation of precipitate along the cell wall. Alkaline phosphatase was demonstrated with several substrates (ethanolamine phosphate, glycerophosphate, p-nitrophenylphosphate, and glucose-6-phosphate) over a wide pH range in a bacterial strain (C-90) known to be constitutive for this enzyme, whereas strains deficient in this enzyme (U-7, repressed K-37), showed no activity with these substrates. Hexose monophosphatase and cyclic phosphodiesterase activities were characterized by reaction-product deposition with specific substrates at acid or neutral, but not at alkaline, pH in strains of E. coli lacking alkaline phosphatase (U-7 and repressed K-37). Fixation in Formalin or the use of calcium as a capture reagent seemed to interfere with periplasmic staining in cells prepared for electron microscopy. Formalin fixation had little effect on biochemical assays of the phosphatase activity of intact cells in suspension, but partially reduced the activity evident in sonically treated extracts or in suspensions of dispersed cryostat sections. Glutaraldehyde treatment impaired enzyme activity more drastically.     

Detection of alkaline phosphatase activity after conventional isoelectric focusing by an indoxyl-tetrazolium salt technique

Alkaline phosphatase was solubilized from human and rat tissues using papain in the presence of TRITON X-100 and subjected to isoelectric focusing (IEF) in polyacrylamide or agarose gels. Up till now, usually 1- and 2-naphthylphosphates have been used as substrates in order to specifically stain molecular forms of this enzyme by the azo-dye technique. In this paper, the use of another histochemical substrate, 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indoxyl phosphate, in combination with tetrazolium salts [McGadey, J. (1970) Histochemie 23, 180-184] is presented. After hydrolysis, the released indoxyl moieties reduce tetrazolium salts to insoluble formazans at the zones of alkaline phosphatase activity. Zymogrammes showing molecular forms of alkaline phosphatase from 20 rat organs and the application of this staining technique for the detection of alkaline phosphatase activity in non-dialyzed human plasma after IEF are presented.     

Solubility properties of alkaline phosphatase from matrix vesicles

Alkaline phosphatase has been extracted from matrix vesicles of a calcifying cartilage with 0.15 M KCl, 0.4 M guanidinium chloride and 0.05 M deoxycholate/50% butanol mixture. The catalytic properties of the three extracts have been compared. Although the highest amount of enzyme activity is extracted with the latter reagent (55%), some of it is also extracted with KCl (11%) and guanidinium (7%). By submitting isolated matrix vesicles to a short time sonication the distribution pattern of the alkaline phosphatase activity in the extracts is clearly modified, as the amount extracted with KCl increases from 14 to 50% and the portion extracted with deoxycholate decreases from 55 to 27% of the total enzyme activity of matrix vesicles. The enzymatic preparations were comparable on the basis of specific activities, affinity for the substrates (p-nitrophenylphosphate, ATP), thermostability, sensitivity to inhibitors and activators. By electrofocusing a value of pI = 4.15 was found for the alkaline phosphatase of matrix vesicles independently of the extraction medium. These results contradict the concept that alkaline phosphatase is exclusively an intrinsic membrane protein.     

Alkaline inorganic pyrophosphatase activity of mammalian-cell alkaline phosphatase

Alkaline phosphatase prepared from mammalian cell cultures was found to have alkaline inorganic pyrophosphatase activity. Both of these activities appear to be associated with a single protein, as demonstrated by: (1) concomitant purification of alkaline phosphatase and alkaline inorganic pyrophosphatase; (2) proportional precipitation of alkaline phosphatase and inorganic pyrophosphatase activities by titrating constant amounts of an enzyme preparation with increasing concentration of antibody; (3) immune electrophoresis, which showed that precipitin bands that have alkaline phosphatase activity also have pyrophosphatase activity; (4) inhibition of pyrophosphatase activity by cysteine, an inhibitor of alkaline phosphatase activity; (5) similar subcellular localization of the two enzyme activities as demonstrated by histochemical methods; (6) hormonal and substrate induction of alkaline phosphatase activity in mammalian cell cultures, which produced a nearly parallel rise in inorganic pyrophosphatase activity.     

Repopulation of the mouse thymus after sublethal fission neutron irradiation. II. Sequential changes in the thymic microenvironment

The stromal cells of the thymus of sham-irradiated and sublethal fission neutron-irradiated CBA/H mice were analyzed with immunohistology, using monoclonal antibodies directed to I-A and H-2K antigens as well as specific determinants for cortical and medullary stromal elements. In the control thymuses, I-A expression in the thymus shows a reticular staining pattern in the cortex and a confluent staining pattern in the medulla. In contrast, H-2K expression is mainly confluently located in the medulla. Whole body irradiation with 2.5 Gy fission neutrons reduces within 24 hr the cortex to a rim of vacuolized "nurse cell-like" epithelial cells, largely depleted of lymphoid cells. The localization of I-A antigens changes in the cortex and I-A determinants are no longer associated with or localized on epithelial reticular cells. Medullary stromal cells, however, are more or less unaffected. A high rate of phagocytosis is observed during the first 3 days after irradiation. About 5 days after irradiation, the thymus becomes highly vascularized and lymphoid cells repopulate the cortex. The repopulation of the thymic cortex coincides with the appearance of a bright H-2K expression in the cortex which is associated with both stromal cells as well as lymphoid blasts. During the regeneration of the thymus, the thymic stromal architecture is restored before the expression of cell surface-associated reticular MHC staining patterns. The observed sequential changes in the thymic microenvironment are related to the lymphoid repopulation of the thymus.     

The serum activity of glucose-6phosphatase and 5'-nucleotidase during human pregnancy.

An attempt has been made to show that the increase in enzyme activities in sera of pregnant women found with glucose-6-phosphate and adenosine 5'-monophosphate as substrates (described as glucose-6-phosphatase and 5'-nucleotidase) was due to the increase in alkaline phosphatase. The three enzyme activities has pH optima and heat stability characteristics of alkaline phosphatase. The response to the action of inhibitors and activators was typical for alkaline phosphatase. There was an identical increase in all three enzyme activities during pregnancy. As a control similar investigations were made with liver and placental tissue extracts.     

Hydrolase histochemistry of the thymus: development and species variations

In the present investigation the localization and activity of alkaline, neutral, and acid hydrolases of the thymus were studied during development of rats and mice and of various adult species using histochemical methods. If different procedures of tissue pretreatment were employed, several inhibition effects and morphological as well as enzyme histochemical artifacts occurred dependent on the mode of tissue pretreatment. After embedding in glycol methacrylate, sections of the thymus showed a better structural preservation than cryostat sections but were accompanied by a drastic decrease of activity and low localization quality of the final reaction products especially in the case of protease studies with 4-methoxy-2-naphthylamine peptides as substrates. Smears of thymic cells facilitated the allocation of enzymes to mobile or fixed cells in the stroma of the thymus. The perivascular localization of aminopeptidase M could only be shown with combined techniques. In comparison, primarily the proteases yielded information on the thymic stroma and in this context especially on the epithelial reticular cells and the stroma proper but also on thymocytes (lymphocytes) and enabled a species-dependent subdivision of the thymic reticulum already in the light microscope. Enzyme histochemically the development of the rat and mouse thymus could be subdivided into an early period and perinatal (pre- and postnatal) period of functional differentiation. Morphological (proliferation of cortical lymphocytes) and enzyme histochemical changes (disappearance of dipeptidylpeptidase IV, significant loss of alkaline phosphatase activity and beginning activity increase of aminopeptidase M) occurred primarily at the transition from the early to the prenatal period. During the postnatal phase, a significant activation of lysosomal enzymes in the thymic medulla and general enzymatic differentiation of the cortical epithelial reticular cells were found. Species differences and species similarities for the respective enzymes and their localization as well as for the thymic cells were noticed for adult rats, mice, guinea-pigs, hamsters, and marmoset monkeys. Differences were true especially for the thymocytes; less species differences were seen for the epithelial reticular cells; capsular and perivascular connective tissue and the macrophages behaved rather similarly. Species-independently certain medullary epithelial reticular cells showed high and typically localized alkaline phosphatase activities and species-dependently also high activities of neutral hydrolases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Cell kinetics in the fetal mouse thymus: precursor cell input, proliferation, and emigration

The entry and differentiation of lymphoid precursor cells (LPC) in grafted mouse fetal thymuses and the emigration of explants thymocytes has been followed in a system in which donor and host lymphocytes could be distinguished on the basis of Thy-1 expression. It appears that LPC that invade the fetal mouse thymus between 10 and 13 days rapidly differentiate into Thy-1 positive thymocytes, giving rise to all of the lymphoid populations of both cortical and medullary locations until approximately the end of the first week after birth. Lymphoid precursor cells that enter the fetal thymus after 13 days of fetal life only differentiate into Thy-1 positive lymphocytes 6 or 7 days after birth, when they give rise to a second generation of thymocytes that grows exponentially and completely replaces the first generation in approximately 8 days. All cells leaving the thymus during the first 2 wk of life appear to be derived from the first wave of precursors.     

Ontogeny of T cells: development of pre-T cells from fetal liver and yolk sac in the thymus microenvironment

The patterns of development of T cells from the very early stem cells that settle in the embryonic thymus have been studied. For this purpose, mouse embryonic thymuses (14 days) depleted of thymocytes were reconstituted with hemopoietic stem cells from fetal liver (FL) and yolk sac (YS) and T-cell development was followed in vitro in organ culture. It was found that cells derived from FL and YS of 10- to 14-day-old embryos were capable of reconstituting depleted thymic explants and exhibiting membrane markers in a pattern similar to that of thymocytes developing in intact thymic explants. Furthermore, these cells responded to concanavalin A in proliferative and cytotoxic assays as measured by limiting-dilution analysis. Thus, lymphohemopoietic stem cells emerging in the embryo prior to thymus lymphoid development are capable of differentiation in the thymus microenvironment into T cells, identified by phenotypic markers and functions that are characteristic of cells developing in the intact embryonic thymus.     

Alkaline phosphatase in HeLa cells. Stimulation by phospholipase A2 and lysophosphatidylcholine.

Treatment of homogenates and plasma membrane preparations from HeLa cells with phospholipase A2 (EC 3.1.1.4) caused a 50% increase in activity of membrane-associated alkaline phosphatase. Lysophosphatidylcholine, dispersed in 0.15 M KCl, affected alkaline phosphatase in a similar fashion by releasing the enzyme from particulate fractions into the incubation medium and by elevating its specific activity. Higher concentrations of lysophosphatidylcholine solubilized additional protein from particulate fractions but did not further increase the specific activity of the released alkaline phosphatase. Particulate fractions from HeLa cells were exposed to the effects of liposomes prepared from lysophosphatidylcholine and cholesterol. The ratio of particulate protein/lysophosphatidylcholine (by weight) required for optimal activation of alkaline phosphatase was one. Kinetic studies indicated that phospholipase A2 and lysophosphatidylcholine enhanced the apparent V of the enzyme but did not significantly alter its apparent Km. The increased release of alkaline phosphatase from the particulate matrix by lysophosphatidylcholine was confirmed by disc electrophoresis. The release of the enzyme by either phospholipase A2 or by lysophosphatidylcholine appeared to be followed by the formation of micelles that contained lysophosphatidylcholine. The new complexes had relatively less cholesterol and more lysophosphatidylcholine than the native membranes. The possibility that lysophosphatidylcholine formed a lipoprotein complex with the solubilized alkaline phosphatase was indicated by a break point in the Arrhenius plot which was evident only in the lysophosphatidylcholine-solubilized enzyme but could not be demonstrated in alkaline phosphatase that had been released with 0.15 M KCl alone.     

Enzyme cytochemistry combined with electron microscopy, pharmacokinetics, and clinical chemistry for the evaluation of the effects of steady-state valproic acid concentrations on the mouse

A number of organs from adult female mice were investigated after continuous application of the anticonvulsant drug valproic acid (VPA) by enzyme cytochemistry, light and electron microscopy, pharmacokinetics and clinical chemistry. VPA plasma levels were maintained between 55 micrograms/ml and 67 micrograms/ml for three days following subcutaneous implantation of drug reservoirs. Effects detectable by enzyme cytochemical or electron microscopical means were mainly observed in liver, kidney, thymus and spleen. A strict concentration-dependency of drug effects could not be found. In the liver, the activities of some surface-membrane hydrolases were increased at the biliary pole; the activities of other hydrolases were decreased or unchanged. Electron microscopically, number and length of microvilli of hepatocytes were increased and many of them showed fat inclusions, mitochondrial swellings and autophagic vacuoles. In some of the proximal convoluted tubules of the kidney, the reaction product originating from microvillous and lysosomal hydrolases was diffusely distributed and its amount lowered. This was paralleled by tubular cells with an increased number of fat droplets and swollen mitochondria or destroyed tubular cells, as demonstrated by electron microscopy. Additionally, peritubular endothelial cells were arranged in a garland-like pattern. Alkaline phosphatase was activated in the straight portion of the proximal tubules. Increased glucose, creatinine and total protein concentrations and increased gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase and alkaline phosphatase activities in the urine reflected well the damage of the proximal renal tubules. Cortical and medullary morphology varied considerably in the thymus. In extreme cases, the cortical zone was either reduced in size or the medulla showed a cortex-like structure or vice versa (inverted type of thymus). The thymic cortical reticular cells showed increased aminopeptidase A activity accompanied by a generalized aminopeptidase M and alkaline phosphatase reaction. Our data indicate that--in addition to the liver--also the kidney, thymus and spleen are target organs of VPA-induced toxicity in the mouse.     

Isolation and properties of a small manganese-ion-stimulated bacterial alkaline phosphatase.

1. An alkaline phosphatase was partially purified from extracts of Halobacterium cutirubrum. 2. The enzyme has a mol.wt. of 15 500 and is therefore less than one-quarter of the size of other known bacterial alkaline phosphatases. 3. It is stimulated up to ten-fold by Mn2+, but not by Ca2+ or Mg2+. 4. The activities with and without Mn2+ cannot be separated by gel filtration and have similar restricted substrate specificities. 5. The only substrates for the enzyme that have so far been found are p-nitrophenyl phosphate, 5'-dATP, 5'-dTMP and 5'-dTTP.     

Yeast fructose-2,6-bisphosphate 6-phosphatase is encoded by PHO8, the gene for nonspecific repressible alkaline phosphatase.

Yeast fructose-2,6-bisphosphate 6-phosphatase has been purified 7000-fold by heat treatment, poly(ethylene glycol) precipitation, ion-exchange chromatography with Q-Sepharose Fast Flow and Mono Q followed by affinity chromatography with concanavalin-A-Sepharose and gel filtration with Superose 12. The purified dimeric enzyme contains 1.5 mol zinc and 1.3 mol copper/mol subunit. It reacts with fructose 2,6-bisphosphate [Fru(2,6)P2] as well as with p-nitrophenyl phosphate (NpP) showing a pH optimum at pH 6-6.5 with Fru(2,6)P2 [Plankert, U., Purwin, C. & Holzer, H. (1988) FEBS Lett. 239, 69-72] and above pH 9.0 with NpP. The following observations suggest that activity with both substrates depends on the same protein. (a) During 7000-fold purification, the ratio of activity with NpP to that with Fru(2,6)P2 remained constant. (b) The time course of inactivation of enzyme activity in dilute solution at 30 degrees C is similar for both substrates. (c) At increasing temperatures, inactivation of enzyme activity measured with both substrates proceeds at nearly identical rates. (d) Activity with both substrates is found preferentially in the vacuoles. (e) Mutants defective in the nonspecific alkaline phosphatase coded by the PHO8 gene are also defective in Fru(2,6)P2 6-phosphatase activity. (f) A proteinase A mutant, defective in processing and activation of nonspecific alkaline phosphatase coded by the PHO8 gene, also fails to activate Fru(2,6)P2 6-phosphatase.     

Inhibition of alkaline phosphatase by thioureido derivatives of methylenebisphosphonic acid

A series of thioureido derivatives of methylenebisphosphonic acid were synthesized by the reaction of aminomethylenebisphosphonic acid with the corresponding isothiocyanates, and their effect on the activity of alkaline phosphatases from bovine small intestine mucosa (BSIM) and human placenta was studied. It was found that (3-phenylthioureido)methylenebisphosphonate is approximately one order of magnitude more effective in inhibiting the activity of alkaline phosphatase from BSIM than the alkyl derivatives of thioureidomethylenebisphosphonic acid with methyl, ethyl, tert-butyl, or cyclohexyl substituents. The introduction of substituents into the benzene ring of (3-phenylthioureido)methylenebisphosphonate decreased the effect of the inhibitor on the activity of the enzyme. The affinity of (3-phenylureido)methylenebisphosphonate to the alkaline phosphatase of BSIM was also weaker as compared with the corresponding thioureidomethylenebisphosphonate. The insertion of thioureidobisphosphonates into the active site of alkaline phosphatase of human placenta by the method of molecular docking indicated that the methylenebisphosphonate residue and the substituted amino groups of the inhibitor are involved in the mechanisms of complex formation with the enzyme. It is supposed that the improvement of the inhibitory activity of (3-phenylthioureido)methylenebisphosphonate toward alkaline phosphatase of BSIM is due to the additional fixation of the phenyl substituent in the active site of the enzyme.     

A microfluorometric method for alkaline phosphatase: Application to the various segments of the nephron

A microtechnique has been developed for the measurement of alkaline phosphatase in minute amounts of renal tissue. This microtechnique utilizes the known fluorescent property of 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate following enzymatic hydrolysis. The reaction is sensitive and reproducible and is inhibited by l-bromotetramisole, a specific alkaline phosphatase inhibitor. The microdetermination of alkaline phosphatase activity in the various segments of the mouse nephron allowed the localization of the enzyme in the glomeruli, and in the proximal convoluted tubule where the activity progressively decreases from the capsule of Bowman to the more distal segments. The enzyme was absent from the pars recta or S3 and from the rest of the nephron. This technique is applicable to very small amounts (0.1 μg of protein) of any tissue containing alkaline phosphatase.