STUDIES ON HUMAN SKIN PROTEASE

[摘要] Proteolytic activity of human skin was investigated by measuring the hydrolysis of synthetic amino acid esters in the presence of skin slices or skin extracts. Protease activity was higher in the surviving slices than in the extract, suggesting that some enzymes are not extractable. Study of successive layers of tne skin indicates that protease activity is not located exclusively in the epidermis as previously maintained. A small fraction of the protease activity is due to extracellular enzymes, probably mostly to plasmin. The intracellular enzymes are of the SH dependent cathepsin C type; they are activated by procedures which break up the cell, such as freezing. As Cormia, Dougherty and Unrau (4), Ungar (7), and others have pointed out, these enzymes may play a role in the reaction of the skin to injury.