Further research on the activity of ribonucleases in the blood and urine of patients suffering from proliferative hemocytopathia.

By J. ALEKSANDROWICZ, J. URBANCZYK, ALEKSANDRA Osrnowsi AND J. SIERK0 O UR PREVIOUS REPORTS have shown that in the urine of patients suffering from various letikemias the ribonuclease ( RN-ase ) activity varies considerably and depends on the type and period of treatment.1 It has been stated that in the urine of patients suffering from chronic granulocytic letikemia the RN-ase activity is particuilarly high when the disease is fully developed. In acute myeloblastic leukemia, on the other hand, the RN-ase activity is normal, or slightly lower, whether the symptoms of the disease increase or decrease. In an attempt to explain this phenomenon one of us (Aleksandrowicz ) assumed that enzymopathy seems to be one of the links in the chain of pathogenetic mechanisms which condition the formation of the leukemia syndrome. In order to test the validity of this hypothesis we have carried out research on the behavior of various type of nucleases in the course of the proliferative hemocytopathies. The increased RN-ase activity in urine in chronic granulocytic leukemia has been explained2 by the fact that the degenerated leukocytes, which circulate in the blood in excess, release the enzyme. Thus, according to Spirer, we are dealing here with a secondary rather than with a primary phenomenon. Consequently, trying to find an answer to this problem, we decided to investigate whether any interdependence exists between the peripheral leukocytosis and the RN-ase activity in various conditions in which increased leukocytosis is present.