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ON THE TURNOVER OF ACETYLCHOLINE IN NERVE ENDINGS OF MOUSE BRAIN IN VIVO
Author(s) -
Schuberth J,
Sparf B,
Sundwall A
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-4159.1970.tb00522.x
Subject(s) - acetylcholine , choline , free nerve ending , chemistry , in vivo , endocrinology , medicine , biochemistry , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
— Acetylcholine is synthesized and stored in the nerve endings from which the liberation of the nerve transmittor is regulated by the nerve activity. The aim of the present investigation was to measure the in vivo turnover of acetylcholine in this subcellular acetylcholine pool. This has been carried out by injecting labelled choline intravenously and then by measuring at different time intervals the ratio between labelled choline and acetylcholine in the fractions obtained after subcellular fractionation. It was found that the ratio radioactive choline to radioactive acetylcholine was the same (2:1) in whole brain and in the nerve ending fraction 2 to 20 min after injection. Since it was assumed that the same ratio is true also for the endogenous compounds the choline pool in the nerve terminals was considered to make up 13 nmoles/g brain. The results also indicate that plasma choline is rapidly equilibrated with the nerve terminals and transformed to acetylcholine at a rate of about 5 nmoles/g brain/min.