Properties of α-L-fucosidase from sera of a healthy female and ovarian cancer patients with low enzyme activity

Individuals may inherit either low, intermediate, or high activity α-L-fucosidase in serum. About 8% of the general population have low enzyme activity in serum. Recently, we reported that females with low activity of α-L-fucosidase in serum were three-fold more prevalent among ovarian cancer patients than healthy females. This suggested that low activity of α-L-fucosidase in serum of females may be a hereditary condition associated with increased risk for developing ovarian cancer. Therefore, α-L-fucosidase was separately purified from serum of a healthy female and from ovarian cancer patients with low enzyme activity and its properties were investigated. Each preparation of enzyme had virtually the same pH optimum, temperature coefficient, activation energy, isoelectric focusing profile, substrate specificity and kinetic properties. This suggests that α-L-fucosidase in sera of healthy females and ovarian cancer patients with low enzyme activity are the same.