Quantitative histochemistry of esterases

Abstract

Microspectrophotometry of enzyme reactions is a practical, fast and relatively easy method for studying enzyme activity in situ. The conditions of its applicability should be carefully studied for each of the quantitative techniques to be used. So far, they have only been established for a limited number of histo-enzymatic reactions. Using a method similar to one employed for studying the validity of acid phosphatase quantitation (Cabrini et al., 1975), we have investigated a technique for demonstrating esterases in a histochemical model system.