[A study on alkaline phosphatase in cervical mucus using disc electrophoresis].

A simple filter-disc-absorption technique for sampling human cervical mucus had been developed by colleagues of author. Using this technique, electrophoretic patterns of proteins and phosphorylase in cervical mucus had been reported. In this presentation, I report isoenzyme patterns of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in the cervical mucus of normal pregnant women and patients with various gynecological diseases using this developed technique. Electrophoresis was carried out with 11.25% polyacrylamide separating gel. The separating gel was prepared using the stacking buffer system at pH 6.7. By this system, the stacking effect was maintained in the gel and the molecular sieve effect was sharpened. ALP activity was demonstrated using 5-bromo-3-indolyl phosphate as the substrate. Placental ALP was identified by its electrophoretic mobility and thermostability. Placental ALP was demonstrated in cervical mucus from 85 pregnant women as early as 6 weeks' gestation. In sera, however, the enzyme activity was demonstrated after 21 weeks' gestation. In cervical mucus and sera of non-pregnant women, and of patients with myoma of the uterus, ovarian tumor and cervical cancer, placental ALP was not demonstrated.