Determination of arginase activity in macrophages: a micromethod

We propose a modification of Schimke's method for urea determination as a valuable micromethod for measuring arginase in activated macrophages. The method exhibits the following advantages: (a) it uses small amounts of samples (approximately 25,000 macrophages per assay); (b) it does not interfere with other related metabolites that are also present in the activated macrophage such as citrulline or arginine; (c) saturating concentrations of the substrate arginine can be used; and (d) it is much more sensitive than Schimke's method and can detect small amounts of urea, in the order of 0.02 mumol.