1. The inorganic-pyrophosphatase activity of alkaline phosphatases prepared from human liver and small intestine was investigated at different stages of purification. 2. Both liver and intestinal preparations possessed pyrophosphatase activity at all stages of purification, and the two types of activity were not separated by gel filtration or by anion-exchange or cation-exchange chromatography. 3. After starch-gel electrophoresis of the tissue extracts, the zones of pyrophosphatase activity coincided exactly with alkaline-phosphatase zones. 4. Hydrolysis of each type of substrate was inhibited by the presence of the other, and a constant ratio of alkaline-phosphatase activity to pyrophosphatase activity was maintained during inactivation of the enzymes by incubation at 55 degrees . 5. These results are consistent with the view that alkaline phosphatases are also inorganic pyrophosphatases.

1. Inhibition of the pyrophosphatase and orthophosphatase activities of human liver and small-intestinal alkaline-phosphatase preparations by different classes of inhibitors has been studied. 2. Each type of substrate, pyrophosphate or orthophosphate, is a competitive inhibitor of hydrolysis of the other type. 3. l-Phenylalanine is a non-competitive inhibitor of both types of activity of the intestinal preparation, but inhibits neither activity of the liver enzyme. Arsenate is a competitive inhibitor of both activities of both preparations. For a given inhibitor, the values of K(i) are independent of the type of substrate used when measurements are made at the same pH. 4. Mg(2+) ions activate orthophosphatase but inhibit pyrophosphatase, except in very low concentrations. 5. These results are compatible with the presence in each tissue preparation of a single enzyme with one type of active centre, possessing both orthophosphatase and pyrophosphatase activities.

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Attempts to distinguish between the alkaline phosphatases (orthophosphoric monoester phosphohydrolases, EC 3.1.3.1) obtained from different human tissues have been based on variations in kinetic properties, reactions with certain inhibitors,

1. Purified human liver and small-intestinal alkaline orthophosphatases release inorganic phosphate at appreciable rates from a variety of organic pyrophosphate substrates. 2. The pyrophosphatase action is inhibited by Mg(2+) ions at concentrations that activate the hydrolysis of orthophosphate substrates by these enzymes. 3. The results of mixed-substrate experiments, denaturation studies with heat or urea and starch-gel electrophoresis suggest that both orthophosphatase and pyrophosphatase activities are, in each preparation, properties of a single enzyme. 4. Intestinal phosphatase shows greater pyrophosphatase activity relative to orthophosphatase than the liver enzyme.