• Online Features  This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (24)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Activity in Normal Infants, in Biliary Atresia, and in Other Diseases

ALEXANDER M. RUTENBURG, M.D; ESTEBAN P. PINEDA, M.D.; JULIUS A. GOLDBARG, M.D.; RUVEN LEVITAN, M.D.; SYDNEY S. GELLIS, M.D.; MERVIN SILVERBERG, M.D.

Am J Dis Child. 1962;103(1):47-54.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Histochemical studies of adult liver for leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) utilizing the synthetic substrate L-leucyl-β-naphthylamide show intense activity in the bile duct epithelium and a weaker reaction in the parenchymal cells.^1,2 We have also observed high activity in the proliferating bile ducts of liver biopsies from 4 infants with biliary atresia. This intense activity in the bile ducts and the observation that LAP is excreted by the liver into the bile appear to explain the high serum LAP activity resulting from extrahepatic or intrahepatic biliary obstruction.^1,3 Diagnostically significant elevations of serum LAP have been shown to relate almost exclusively to diseases of the liver, bile ducts, or pancreas.^1,3-6

The normal range of enzymatic activity in infants has not been described and the clinical usefulness of serum LAP elevations in infants with hepatobiliary disease has not been assessed. By adult standards, LAP levels have been reported to be normal . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations

From the Surgical Research Department of the Yamins Research Laboratory, Beth Israel Hospital; the Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School; the Departments of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine and the Boston City Hospital; and the Departments of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.; Sydney S. Gellis, M.D., Boston City Hospital, 818 Harrison Ave., Boston 18.

Footnotes

This investigation was supported by research grants from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Bethesda 14, Md.

Flint glass tubing with an outside diameter of 4 mm. and a bore of 2.5 mm. was cut into 12 cm. lengths with a Griffin glass cutter. Each tube had a capacity of about 0.6 ml.

CiteULike    Connotea    Delicious    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?