Multiple Forms of Enzymes in Diagnostic Enzymology

Abstract

Almost all the enzymes of the human body function within the cells in which they are formed, relatively few, such as the digestive enzymes and the enzymes of the blood clotting system, being secreted into the extracellular fluids. Although small samples of almost any organ can now safely be obtained by biopsy techniques, chemical analysis of these samples, including the measurement of enzyme activities, has so far found little diagnostic application. In contrast, studies of the characteristics and activities of enzymes in readily available samples of body fluids, usually serum, are widely applied in the investigation of disease, in an attempt to infer the nature and extent of pathological changes within the cells and tissues. The enzymes chosen for study in diagnostic enzymology need not necessarily be primarily involved in the process of disease provided that a correlation can be established between their extracellular levels and particular pathological processes.