Abstract
IN the course of histochemical investigations on the human eccrine sweat gland alkaline phosphatase reactivity in the luminal portion of the ampulla was observed1. This observation has been repeated frequently, and it has been noted that this reactivity may continue into the proximal part of the coiled duct. Dr. G. H. Findlay of Pretoria suggested that this phenomenon might represent deposition of alkaline phosphatase, if the enzyme were present in sweat. We have found no reference to enable us to answer this question. A random sample of sweat was accordingly collected from a normal male volunteer half an hour after the onset of profuse sweating in a ‘hot box’. It contained 2.9 King–Armstrong units of alkaline phosphatase.
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References
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King, E. J., and Wotton, I. D. P., Micro-Analysis in Medical Biochemistry, third ed. (Churchill, London, 1956).
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Scholes, O., Advances in Enzymology, 7, 522, edit. by Nord, F. F. (Interscience Publishers, New York, 1947).
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LOEWENTHAL, L., POLITZER, W. Alkaline Phosphatase in Human Eccrine Sweat. Nature 195, 902 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/195902a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/195902a0
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