Residual Catalase in the Blood of Japanese Acatalasemia

Abstract

Properties of the residual catalase of erythrocytes in the blood of Japanese acatalasemia are almost the same as those of the normal catalase as judged by the elution pattern by Sephadex G-100 gel filtration, affinity toward the substrate, the sedimentation pattern by density gradient centrifugation, and the heat stability. Japanese acatalasemia is different from Swiss one derived from the literature (Matsubara et al. 1967) on the fact that the residual catalase activity is heat-stable, and the catalase activity in reticulocytes is extremely low in Japanese acatalasemia. The catalase activity of Japanese hypocatalasemia (heterozygote) is also lower than that of Swiss case in the literature (Aebi et al. 1961). The results are discussed in terms of the possible difference in the genetic mechanism of the Japanese and Swiss acatalasemias.