Asparaginase Activity Assay Kit

Asparaginase is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of asparagine to aspartate. While asparaginase is synthesized by plants, microorganisms, and some animals, it does not occur naturally in humans. While most cells have the ability to synthesize asparagine, many hematopoietic cells do not and depend on exogenous asparagine for protein synthesis. Treatment of certain hematopoietic malignancies such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) with asparaginase results in depletion of blood levels of asparagine resulting in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Asparaginase is also used in the food industry to reduce the formation of acrylamide in starchy and fried foods.

Suitable for measuring asparaginase activity in biological samples

The Asparaginase Activity Assay Kit provides a simple and direct procedure for measuring Asparaginse activity in a variety of biological samples. Asparaginase activity is determined by a coupled enzyme assay, which results in a colorimetric (570 nm)/fluorometric (λ_ex = 535/λ_em = 587 nm) product, proportional to the aspartate generated. One milliunit (mU) of Asparaginase is defined as the amount of enzyme that catalyzes the formation of 1.0 mmole of aspartate per minute at 25 °C.