Comparison of three methods of expressing ß‐glucuronidase activity in intestinal contents

Abstract

High variance associated with some methods of expressing enzymic activity in intestinal contents, particularly ß‐glucuronidase activity, can lead to lack of statistical power to detect differences among treatment groups without recourse to very large sample sizes. A comparison of three methods of expressing enzyme activity in intestinal contents was made to determine whether any method was associated with lower variance. In the case of data generated under aerobic incubation conditions, ß‐glucuronidase activity expressed per gram of contents was associated with significantly lower variance compared to activity expressed per mg of total protein. Under anaerobic incubation conditions, none of the methods compared ‐ expression of activity per gram wet weight contents, per mg of protein or per 10¹⁰ cells ‐differed significantly with respect to variance.

Key words:

• ß‐Glucuronidase
• Enzyme Activity
• Intestinal