Determination of enteropeptidase activity in human duodenal aspirates.

A sensitive procedure is described for the determination in duodenal aspirates of enteropeptidase activity based on the activation of trypsinogen and the estimation of trypsin formed with benzoyl-arginine-p-nitroanilide. Using the recovery approach where a known amount of purified human enteropeptidase is diluted in duodenal fluid and the recoverable activity determined, this method was shown to give a sensitive and reliable estimate of the enteropeptidase activity in duodenal fluid although it was shown that the enzyme was subject to a 10% activation by components in the duodenal fluid. The reported 5-fold stimulation of enteropeptidase activity by bile salts could not be demonstrated.