Acid phosphatase activity in monocytes and sera of patients with Hodgkin's disease.

Acid phosphatase (AP) levels have been found to be decreased in monocytes of 38 patients with Hodgkin's disease as compared to 16 healthy subjects. Low cellular AP activity was associated with the presence of active disease, stage IV and lymphocyte depletion type. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was decreased in monocytes of patients but the difference did not reach statistical significance. In parallel, serum AP activities have been found to be increased in patients. There was an inverse correlation between the monocyte and serum AP levels which can be explained by assuming AP secretion from monocytes of patients in vivo.