Frog lysozyme. IV. Isozyme of lysozyme and the Lucké renal adenocarcinoma.

The normal kidney of the frog Rana pipiens contains eight isozymes of lysozyme. Three of these, however, were not present in five Lucke renal adenocarcinomas. No isozymes were found to be unique to the tumor kidneys. Of the five isozymes detected in tumor kidneys, only one was uniformly present, a second was present in four of five tumors, and the appearance of the other three was highly variable, although no tumor kidney contained all of them. The uniform absence of the three isozymes and the variable distribution of the other five among the tumors attested to the metabolic uniqueness of this tumor and was consistent with a prior hypothesis concerning the role of lysozyme in the etiology of this herpesvirus-induced tumor.