Semiquantitative cytochemical determination of acid phosphatase, beta-glucuronidase, and beta-glucosaminidase activity in peripheral blood lymphocytes.

Activity of acid phosphatase, beta-glucuronidase, and beta-glucosaminidase in peripheral blood lymphocytes was determined cytochemically in 20 normal subjects, 10 male and 10 female, by the use of BARKA and ANDERSON's (1962), HAYASHI et al. (1964) and HAYASHI's (1965) methods, respectively. Results obtained were semiquantitatively according to subdivision of lymphocytes into enzyme-negative and enzyme-positive cells. Enzyme-positive lymphocytes were divided into cells with granular, mixed granular and diffuse enzymatic reaction type. In the first two types of cytochemical reaction a number of enzyme-positive lysosomal granules were counted and expressed in terms of both absolute count and percentage of circulating lymphocytes. Enzyme-positive lymphocytes represented 80.3%, 40.5% and 41.5% of the total lymphocyte count in regard to the presence of acid phosphatase, beta-glucuronidase, and beta-glucosaminidase, respectively.