Phosphotransferases and lysosomal enzymes in fetal human and rat lung.

The present investigations on rat lung show that metabolic changes occurring around the 20th gestational day are accompanied by multiple alterations in the quantitative pattern of enzymes. This involves increases in two lysosomal enzymes (N-acetyl beta-glucosaminidase and beta-galactosidase) and a rise and fall in pyruvate kinase and alpha-glucosidase. The striking transient upsurge of adenylate kinase, however, is postponed until after birth. The normal diminution of thymidine kinase and peptidylproline hydroxylase is drastically enhanced by an injection of cortisol to fetal rats. Studies on human pulmonary tissues consisted in determining enzyme concentration from the ninth to the 21st week of gestation and an histologically normal adult lungs. The results show that the 15th to the 21st week of gestation is the period of increase in pyruvate kinase, adenylate kinase and alpha-glucosidase. The rise during the development of several enzymes (e.g., 5'-nucleotidase, alkaline phosphatase, and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase) and the decline in thymidine kinase and peptidylproline hydroxylase, however, dose not begin until after the 21st week of gestation.