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We used a single radial immunodiffusion technique to determine the lysozyme content of human tears. The level in healthy subjects with this method was 1.3 mg/ml of tears. In patients with trachoma, the level was low, 0.9 mg/ml of tears. Detecting the reduction in lysozyme level in patients with trachoma proved the utility of this method.

The activity of NAD+-dependent PGDH was measured in the cytosolic fractions (100,000 x g) of uterine tissues obtained from transsexual, pregnant and non-pregnant women. The specific activity (mean +/- SD) of the enzyme at maximum velocity of the enzyme reaction in these three groups of women was 5.5 +/- 2.30, 0.53 +/- 0.27 and 0.54 +/- 0.25 mU/mg protein respectively using PGE2 as substrate, and with PGF2 alpha as substrate the respective values were 5.48 +/- 2.80, 0.49 +/- 0.41 and 0.51 +/- 0.30 mU/mg protein. These data suggest that, with either substrate, the uterine enzyme activity in the transsexuals was about 10-fold greater than in pregnant and non-pregnant women (p less than 0.001). However, the Km values of the enzyme for both PGE2 and PGF2 alpha were similar in all three groups, indicating the presence of same enzyme in the uterus of transsexual, pregnant and non-pregnant women. We speculate that PGDH activity was raised in the uterus of transsexual women because of the prolonged androgen therapy they received for the management of female-to-male transsexualism.