Structual comparison of ectopic and normal placental alkaline phosphatase.

An alkaline phosphatase immunochemically similar to placental alkaline phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.1) was purified from liver metastases of a giant-cell carcinoma of the lung. Some properties of its physical and chemical structure were determined and compared to those of purified placental alkaline phosphatase. The purified tumor phosphatase and the placental phosphatase were similar with regard to the following properties: (1) NH(2)-terminal sequence, (2) peptide map, (3) subunit molecular weight, and (4) isoelectric point. The physical properties and NH(2)-terminal sequence of alkaline phosphatase isoenzyme of liver differed from the placental and the tumor enzyme. The data from the present study strongly support the hypothesis that the tumor and the placental alkaline phosphatases are products of the same gene.