Properties and clinical significance of an alkaline phosphatase-lipoprotein-X complex.

The existence of an alkaline phosphatase-lipoprotein-X complex was demonstrated as an abnormally moving band in the agar-agarose gel alkaline phosphatase pattern of sera from 58 patients in a group of 72 patients whose sera contained lipoprotein-X. The position of the abnormally moving band in the agar-agarose gel alkaline phosphatase pattern and the percentage of alkaline phosphatase activity in the complex in relation to the total serum alkaline phosphatase activity depend on the serum lipoprotein-X concentration. The presence of the complex is a reliable indicator for cholestasis and of limited value in the differentiation between intrahepatic and extrahepatic cholestasis.