"Acid" Phosphatase and Functional Activity of the Prostate (Man) and Preputial Glands (Rat)

Abstract

While investigating the source of marked outpourings of “acid” phosphatase in the urine of adult men, Kutscher and Wolbergs1 discovered that normal adult prostate tissue is extremely rich in a phosphatase, apparently specific,2 with optimal activity at approximately pH 5.0. At about the same time, Moore and Hanzel3 noted that prostate tissue extracts split off inorganic phosphorus from sodium nucleinate, a “nuclease” effect attributable to nucleotidases, which are now classified as phosphatases.4,5 Prostate phosphatase has since been found also6,7 in the primary tumor, at the site of distant metastases and in the blood serum of patients with metastasizing carcinoma of the prostate gland. The implications of these observations have been considered elsewhere.6,7The prostate gland of children, we find, contains little “acid” phosphatase (4.5 units at birth, 1.5 units at 4 years, 73.0 units at 13 years. per g fresh tissue). But adult prostate glands, though varying widely in phosphatase activity at pH 4.9 (fr...