Acid hydrolases in normal and diseased human muscle

The activities of acid phosphatase and β-acetylglucosaminidase in muscles from normal persons and from patients with various muscular and neuromuscular diseases have been determined. They are normal in all minimally abnormal muscles irrespective of their different disease etiologies. Increased amounts of these enzymes are only found in the severely deranged muscles obtained from patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, other dystrophies, polymyositis, spinal muscular atrophy and in other myopathies. These results suggest that these enzymes are involved in muscle degeneration in humans.