Microwave-stimulated brain enzyme incubations are possible at the unphysiological condition of 50 degrees C.

Microwave-stimulated enzyme incubations for acetylcholinesterase, 5'-nucleotidase, alkaline phosphatase, lactate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase, succinic dehydrogenase and isocitric dehydrogenase were studied, and compared with incubations in a waterbath. Temperature settings of 37 degrees C and 50 degrees C were used, and the incubation times were varied from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. The desired temperature of the incubation solution was reached in the microwave oven within 1 minute, whilst in the waterbath it took 10 to 25 minutes. The microscopic results for alkaline phosphatase and succinic dehydrogenase at a temperature setting of 50 degrees C were superior in the microwave method for incubation times less than 15 minutes. It is postulated that the increased reaction product of alkaline phosphatase and succinic dehydrogenase is due to a temperature effect, which has to be large enough to be of practical value. For the other enzymes studied, microwave-stimulated incubations were no better than the conventional incubations at corresponding temperatures. For 5'-nucleotidase there were aspecific lead deposits in the microwave method. All enzymes performed at the elevated, unphysiological temperature of 50 degrees C proved to have advantages, except for 5'-nucleotidase, whilst for malate dehydrogenase there was an aspecific reduction of the colour developer at this temperature.