An improved method for the isolation and assay of the acid lipase from human liver.

Abstract An improved method for the isolation and assay of the lysosomal acid lipase from human liver has been developed. Over 90% of the enzymatic activity was extracted in a soluble form by brief homogenization of frozen tissue with the nonionic surfactant, Triton X-100. With cholesterol, [1- 14 C]oleate and 4-methylumbelliferyl palmitate as substrate in emulsions with the amphoteric surfactant, N -tetradecyl- N , N -dimethyl-3-ammonio-1-propanesulfonate, and ethanol, an apparent V of 1.9 nmol · min −1 · mg −1 protein was obtained with the radioactive substrate and 29 nmol · min −1 · mg −1 protein with the fluorogenic substrate analog, respectively. The released radioactivity-labelled oleic acid was quantitated by selective extraction with a new biphasic solvent system containing carbon tetrachloride and hexane. This assay procedure offers the advantages over other procedures that subcellular fractionation of the tissue is not required for the isolation of the enzyme; the enzymatic activity toward these emulsions is much greater than previously reported for other methods of substrate solubilization and cholesterol esters with saturated and unsaturated fatty acids can be employed as substrates since both types of fatty acids can be efficiently partitioned and quantitated with this solvent system.