A TURBIDIMETRIC METHOD FOR DETERMINING HYALURONIDASE IN SEMEN AND TISSUE EXTRACTS1

Abstract

RECENT EVIDENCE (McClean and Rowlands, 1942; Fekete and Duran-Reynals, 1943; Rowlands, 1944; Joel and Eichenberger, 1945; Werthessen et al., 1945; Leonard and Kurzrok, 1945) of the possible importance of hyaluronidase in the process of fertilization made it desirable that a simple, rapid method adaptable to routine determination of the enzyme be available. A quantitative biological test was recently proposed by Leonard and Kurzrok (1946). This was not found satisfactory when large numbers of assays were required to be made in one day. To date the available non-biological techniques for hyaluronidase determination consist of (1) measurement of the reducing substances formed by the hydrolysis of the glucosidic linkages of hyaluronic acid (Meyer, 1946), (2) the measurement of the decrease in viscosity due to enzymatic action on a given hyaluronic acid solution (Madinaveitia and Quibell, 1940), or (3) the measurement of the turbidity produced by the interaction of acidified blood serum with the hyaluronic acid polymer (Seastone 1939, 1943; and Kass and Seastone, 1944).