ACID ALPHA-NAPHTHYL ACETATE ESTERASE - PRESENCE OF ACTIVITY IN BOVINE AND HUMAN LYMPHOCYTE-T AND LYMPHOCYTE-B

Abstract

Non-specific acid .alpha.-naphthyl acetate esterase (ANAE) activity was demonstrated in a majority of bovine peripheral blood lymphocytes, confirming and extending the observations on murine and human lymphocytes made by previous workers. Simultaneous study of ANAE activity and spontaneous erythrocyte (E) or erythrocyte-antibody-complement (EAC) rosetting capability of the same bovine lymphocytes showed directly that while 64.2 .+-. 4.9% (standard error of the mean) of bovine lymphocytes capable of forming E rosettes were ANAE-positive, 38.3 .+-. 0.8% of those forming EAC rosettes were also ANAE-positive. Similar studies of human peripheral blood lymphocytes showed also that while 80.6 .+-. 2.2% of the lymphocytes capable of forming E rosettes were ANAE-positive, 44.1 .+-. 2.6% of EAC forming lymphocytes were ANAE-positive. Thus, the presence of ANAE activity in a majority of T [thymus-derived] lymphocytes and a significant proportion of B [bone marrow-derived] lymphocytes of human and bovine peripheral blood was indicated. Human and bovine lymphocytes from phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated cultures demonstrated greatly enhanced intensity of ANAE activity.