Specific assays for human alkaline phosphatase isozymes

Specific assays for human intestinal and liver alkaline phosphatases were developed by use of isozyme specific monoclonal antibodies bound to paper discs. The assays are fast, specific and convenient to use as demonstrated by determinations of alkaline phosphatase isozymes in sera and tissues. In sera from forty healthy individuals the activity of the tissue unspecific alkaline phosphatase was determined to 32 +/- 12 IU/l (mean +/- SD). The activity of the intestinal alkaline phosphatase was found to be ten-fold lower, 3.5 +/- 6.3 IU/l (mean +/- SD), and of the placental alkaline phosphatase another ten-fold lower, 0.3 +/- 0.2 IU/l (mean +/- SD), than that of the tissue unspecific alkaline phosphatase. Several normal tissues contained all three isozymes, the intestinal mucosa, for example, which besides intestinal alkaline phosphatase also expresses trace amounts of placental and liver-bone-kidney alkaline phosphatase. Seminomas, known to express eutopically placental-like alkaline phosphatase were demonstrated to contain increased levels of both intestinal and liver-bone-kidney alkaline phosphatases as compared to the normal testis.