The acetylcholinesterase activity of erythrocytes of growing children.

Abstract

During an investigation of the distribution and relative activity of various enzymes in the blood of growing children, a study of the activity of ChE in the red blood cells was conducted. The object of the survey was to determine the range of activity, the mean values for the sexes, and its possible relationship to other hematological data and to certain psychometric measurements. In order to conduct these analyses on the small amounts of blood obtained by finger puncture, a micro modification of the titrimetric method for determining this enzyme was developed. The controversy (i, 9), regarding the nature of the enzymes occurring in the plasma and red cells which hydrolyze acetylcholine, will not be dealt with here. The pertinent arguments regarding nomenclature of these enzymes are resolved in an article by Glick (7). Suffice to say, that the enzyme occurring in plasma hydrolyzes many esters of organic acids in addition to acetylcholine, while the enzyme found in the erythrocytes hydrolyzes other esters; it splits acetylcholine at a higher rate than other substrates (i ). For this reason, the ChE in the red cells may be regarded as very similar, if not identical with, that found in nerve tissue.