Hydrolysis of a water insoluble substrate incorporated into solidified agar medium by enzyme α-amylase contained in serum and urine of patients suffering from acute pancreatitis

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Water insoluble synthetic blue starch polymer incorporated into solidified agar medium was shown to be broken down by enzyme α-amylase present in human blood, serum and plasma. The hydrolysis was effected by the α-amylase as it diffused through the agar-blue starch polymer medium. The dependence of the size of the area in which hydrolysis had occurred in time, temperature of incubation and the serial dilution of the sample was studied. This unique technique is the only technique known which presents the measurement of α-amylase activity in the whole blood. This fact together with the simplicity of this method makes the technique ideally suited for bed-side testing and for assaying a-amylase in emergency cases.