The ontogenetic evolution of acidic phosphoprotein phosphatase activity in the lymphatic tissue and the liver of the rat

Abstract

We have shown that an acidic phosphoprotein phosphatase (APP-ase) has a different pattern of postnatal maturation in the spleen, thymus and liver of rats and mice. The APP-ase activity increases during the first eight months of postnatal life in the spleen of rats (when it attains an 8--10 times higher value than at birth) and up to the sixth month of life in the spleen of mice. It increases considerably during the first two weeks of postnatal life in the thymus of rats and mice; in the liver of rats it reaches maximum activity before birth, but continues to increase up to the sixth month of postnatal life in the liver of mice. The results show also that the APP-ase from the spleen, thymus and liver of rats is equally active in dephosphorylating ATP and phenyl phosphate during the whole life span of rats, but not in relation to beta-glycerol phosphate. After analyzing its substrate specificity, its pH dependence in relation to different substrates, its kinetic properties, as well as its behaviour towards ascorbic acid and different inhibitors (sodium tungstate and sodium molybdate, L-tartrate, L-phenylalanine and L-cysteine) we have come to the conclusion that the rat spleen APP-ase is different from "nonspecific" acid and alkaline phosphatases and very similar to the EC 3.1.3.16 acid phosphoprotein phosphatase.