Acid phosphatase as a marker of cellular damage. Characterization of two cell lines for toxicity studies.

Acid Phosphatase (API has been widely used as an indicator for xeiiobiotics toxicity in mammalian cells. In this study, two ce11 lines (HEp-2, IEC-17) have been characterized for their AP content during the growth cycle, measuring total and free activities. HEp-2 ce11 line has been exposed to a peptic-tryptic-cotazym@ (PTC) digest from and + wheat gliadins: PTC digest of gliadin derived from a w h e a t induced a significant increase of AP activity in exposed cells. The use of AP as index o£ toxicity is discussed in relation to the compartimentalization and the latency of the enzyme. A more standardized approach to estimate AP activity in cells exposed to xenobiotics is suggested, due to the very different methods used for its determination.