Effects of dietary copper loading on livers of rats. I. Changes in subcellular acid phosphatases and detection of an additional acid p-nitrophenylphosphatase in the cellular supernatant during copper loading.

Significant changes occurred in lysosomal structure and function as copper was metabolized by rat livers. Hepatic total acid p-nitrophenylphosphatase (pNphiPase) activity was markedly increased in copper-loaded rats, and this increase was almost completely accounted for by heat- and formalin-stable (HFS) acid pNphiPase. Heat- and formalin-labile acid pNphiPase was essentially unchanged.