Comparative study on the activity, pH optimum and thermal stability of some glycosidases and acid phosphatase from pig and mule leukocytes.

1. alpha-D-mannosidase, beta-D-galactosidase, alpha-L-fucosidase, beta-N-acetylgalactosaminidase, alpha-D-glucosidase and acid phosphatase activities were studied in circulating blood leukocytes from Sus scropha var. domestica L. (pig) and Equus asinus x caballus (mule) by spectrophotometric procedures using p-nitrophenyl derivatives as substrates and three different buffer solutions. 2. The highest specific activity corresponds to acid phosphatase. The specific activities of the glycosidases, all relatively close together in all cases, were low in comparison with that of phosphatase. 3. Generally, each of the above-mentioned enzymes shows one common peak for the pH optimum between 3.5 and 6.0, except alpha-D-glucosidase, which shows two peaks. 4. The pH optima values are generally similar in three buffer solutions employed. 5. Specific activities of the studied enzymes show a parallelism in leukocytes from both pig and mule. Also, this parallelism is observed in their pH optima values. 6. Thermal stability of alpha-D-mannosidase is high whereas that of acid phosphatase is low, in both materials. For other enzymes, differences in the thermal stability was observed according to their source.