Fluorometric determination of delta-aminolaevulinate dehydratase activity in human erythrocytes as an index to lead exposure.

We describe a fluorometric method for determining delta-aminolaevulinate dehydratase (EC 4.2.1.24) activity in human erythrocytes and compare it with the existing colorimetric method. Incubation conditions are identical. In the proposed method, the porphobilinogen formed during incubation is converted to a stable and highly fluorescent uroporphyrin by heating for 20 min at 93 degrees C in an acidic medium in the presence of air. The correlation between results by the two methods was good (r = 0.89). We found a good negative correlation between the activity of the enzyme and the concentration of circulating lead with both methods (r = -0.61 for present method and -0.59 for colorimetric method) for groups of persons subjected to various degrees of lead exposure. Our method is more sensitive and accurate, requires less sample, and the fluorescence is more stable than is the color in the colorimetric method.