Histochemical Demonstration of Lipase Activity in the Pectoralis Major Muscle of the Pigeon

Abstract

OUR earlier observation that the pigeon breast muscle contains a lipase¹ has led to the present attempt to demonstrate its presence in this muscle using histochemical methods. The ‘Tween’ method of Gomori² was chosen for the purpose. The substrate used was ‘Tween 80’ (Atlas). The incubation medium contained 2 ml. 10 per cent calcium chloride, 2 ml. 5 per cent ‘Tween 80’, 5 ml. bicarbonate buffer³ of pH 8.4, 40 ml. distilled water and a crystal of thymol as preservative. The mixture was kept overnight in an oven at 40° C. and the precipitate formed was filtered off before use. Sections were incubated for 10–12 hr. at 40° C., which is the optimum temperature for this lipase¹. Parallel experiments were run with sections of pancreas of the same animal for comparison and confirmation of the results. It was noted that acetone destroyed the lipase, and experiments with paraffin sections of tissue fixed in acetone yielded negative results.