Proteinases and their inhibitors in intervertebral discs

The authors investigated the incidence of proteinases and their inhibitors in bovine intervertebral discs. They proved the presence of proteinases of all basic enzyme classes. In some instances (in the class of cysteine proteinases) a more detailed specification of the present enzymes could be made. The authors proved also the presence of inhibitors of serine and cysteine proteinases which were characterized by relative molecular weights. The relative molecular weights were within the range of cca 7000 to cca 40,000.