Lipases in bovine milk and the relationship between the lipoprotein lipase and tributyrate hydrolysing activities in cream and skim-milk

The lipoprotein lipase and tributyrate hydrolysing activities were found to be similarly distributed in the fractions obtained when whole milk was separated into skim-milk and cream, and when the cream was washed and freed from lipid. These enzyme activities in skim-milks and in extracts of lipid-free cream could not be separated by affinity chromatography on heparin-Sepharose. The enzymes were inactivated to the same degree when incubated at 37°C in the presence of 1·5 M-NaCl, pH 8·5, and both showed the same marked decrease in stability at 4°C in 1·5 M-NaCl, when the pH was changed from 8·3 to 9·0. Irradiation of skim-milk with UV-light caused the same decrease in both lipoprotein lipase and tributyrate hydrolysing activities. An antiserum against a highly purified skim-milk lipoprotein lipase caused total inhibition of the lipoprotein lipase and tributyrate hydrolysing activities in skim-milk and in extracts of lipid-free cream. It is suggested that in bovine milk there is only one major lipase and that it is identical to lipoprotein lipase.