The Catalase Protein of Acatalasemic and Hypocatalasemic Red Blood Cells. I. Quantitative Precipitin Studies on Hemolysate and Acetone Extract.

In order to know the precise quantity of catalase protein in acatalasemic and hypocatalasemic blood, immunological studies were conducted using hemolysates or acetone extracts of those blood as antigen. 1) The ratio of catalase contained in normal, hypocatalasemic and acatalasemic blood, calculated from precipitates produced in the reaction between catalase antibody and hemolysates was 1.0 : 0.5 : 0.07. 2) The ratio of catalase in normal, hypocatalasemic and acatalasemic blood, calculated from precipitates from the catalase antibody and the acetone extracts was 1.0: 0.49 : 0.11. In the precipitin ring tests using acetone extract, the antigen titer in normal, hypocatalasemic and acatalasemic extracts was 40, 20, and 0 respectively. 3) From our experiments it can be said that hypocatalasemic blood shows one half the catalase activity of normal blood, due to one half the quantity of catalase protein, and that acatalasemic blood lacks catalase activity due to the absence of the catalase protein. These findings strongly suggest that no substances exist which suppress or inhibit the catalase activity in hypocatalasemic and acatalasemic blood. ∗PMID: 14201060 [PubMed indexed for MEDLINE] Copyright c ©OKAYAMA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL Acta Med. Okayama 18, 1-8 (1964) THE CATALASE PROTEIN OF ACATALASEMIC AND HYPOCATALASEMIC RED BLOOD CELLS I. QUANTITATIVE PRECIPITIN STUDIES ON HEMOLYSATE AND ACETONE EXTRACT Masana OGATA and Shigeo T AKAHARA Department of Public Health and Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Okayama University Medical School, Okayama, Japan Received for publication, February 10, 1964 From recent studies, it is well recognized that acatalasemiali is a congenital abnormality in which blood has no catalase activity and that hypocatalasemia6.1 where there is one half the catalase activity of normal blood, is the heterozygous or genetic carrier of the acatalasemic gene. In previous papers•. l1 we demonstrated that catalase protein was not found in the extract (Stages 2 and 3 of HERBERT and PINSENT ) of acatalasemic blood when examined by paper electrophoretic, spectrophotometric and immunological methods. However, in these experiments there is a possibility that some denatured catalase protein might have been present in the sediment rather than in the extract on treatment with the ethanol-chloroform mixture. To clarify this point, we carried out experiments using normal, hypocatalasemic and acatalasemic hemolysates as antigen and estimated the quantity of catalase protein in the blood by the quantitative precipitin method. Also, acetone extracts obtained from normal, hypocatalasemic and acatalasemic blood were used as antigen for the quantitative estimation of catalase protein.