[Critical study of extra-lysosomal acid phosphatase localizations in thyroid follicular cells by the Gomori reaction (author's transl)]

Abstract

With the Gömöri technique, lead precipitates have been found in thyroid follicle cells in unusual localizations such as apical hyaloplasm and microvilli; it has been established that they were actually significant for acid phosphatase activity: constant results in spite of repeated controls and several variations from the original cytochemical technique, allow to think that lead precipitates were not merely artefactual, but actually significant of enzymatic activity. However it is pointed to the fact that the origin of the enzyme has to be questioned; it is assumed that most likely acid phosphatase has diffused from its original lysosomal site. Such diffusion implies variations of the selective permeability of lysosomal membranes; inappropriate relation between the quantity of enzyme present in these organelles and the quantity of substrate used might also be considered, though changes in the amount (resp. concentration) of substrate remained ineffective and induced no modification in the localization of observed enzymatic activity. In addition, one point of interest is an obvious relation between the observed enzyme diffusion and the state of activity resp. rest of the cell; in the present state of investigations, this remains unexplained and likely related to factors escaping control during processing; moreover, no explanation can be provided for the fact that it revealed impossible to avoid such diffusion even by means of variations of the numerous parameters involved in the Gömöri technique. So that it finally appears necessary to remain on a critical position regarding the results at the ultrastructural level of this standardized technique, and there is no doubt it would reveal useful that several assumptions in the literature about extra lysosomal acid phosphatase activity should be reinvestigated with a similar critical purpose.