Biology/enzyme activity units
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Question
I am familiar with enzyme activity units as U/mg, but what is IE/mg? In an article the enzyme activity of a product is described as IE/mg. How do I convert IE/mg to U/mg?
Thanking you in advance,
Sara
Hi Sara: Thanks for your question. Sorry about the delay, I've had a bad cold.
Units of enzyme activity are measured in terms of substrate consumed in a fixed unit of time. From Wikipedia:
Enzyme activity = moles of substrate converted per unit time = rate × reaction volume. Enzyme activity is a measure of the quantity of active enzyme present and is thus dependent on conditions, which should be specified. The SI unit is the katal, 1 katal = 1 mol s-1, but this is an excessively large unit. A more practical and commonly-used value is 1 enzyme unit (EU) = 1 μmol min-1 (μ = micro, x 10-6). 1 U corresponds to 16.67 nanokatals. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme_assay)
IE units are a symbol for "international einheit", the German name for the international unit (IU).
Hope this helps. Again sorry for the delay.
FM Rollwagen, PhD
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| Comment | Dear Florence, Thank you very much for your helpful reply. This is quite clear. Best regards, Sara Kent | ||
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Florence M Rollwagen
Expertise
I can answer questions in biology, microbiology and immunology on the undergraduate or graduate level. I can also address medical and health concerns regarding alternative medicine, autoimmune diseases (lupus, MS) liver disease and intestinal problems.
Experience
I have over 20 years experience in research and teaching at the medical/graduate level, and 5 years teaching college biology and microbiology. My expertise is in microbiology and immunology, specifically the biology of cytokines and soluble immune response modifiers. I also carried out original research in blood substitutes and shock/trauma.
Organizations
American Association of Immunologists (AAI)
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Publications
Journal of Experimental Medicine, Journal of Immunology, Cytokine, Shock, Experimental Hematology
Education/Credentials
BS biology 1966
MS biology 1968
PhD immunology 1979
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