Summary
The histochemical and cytochemical localization of cholinesterases in Bidder's ganglion of the frog heart was investigated and the activity of cholinesterases measured microgasometrically.
When either acetylthiocholine or propionylthiocholine was used as substrate, the end product of histochemical and cytochemical reaction was found in all ganglion cells and nerve fibers, the only difference being in the amount of the accumulated precipitate. The end product was localized on the axolemma and in the smooth endoplasmic reticulum of nerve fibers; in the smooth and granulated endoplasmic reticulum of ganglion cells; in the synaptic region between the nerve ending and Schwann cells membrane; and, occasionally, in discontinous streches between the pre- and postsynaptic membrane. The nerve endings of the neurons of the Bidder's ganglion contain predominantly agranular vesicles with occasional clusters of granular ones.
Neither the histochemical nor the cytochemical localization of enzyme activity could be detected when butyrylthiocholine was used as substrate. In microgasometric experiments splitting of butyrylcholine was hardly, if at all, measurable. Cholinesterases of the ganglion cells and of the nerve fibers of Bidder's ganglion hydrolyze propionylcholine but at a somewhat lower rate than acetylcholine.
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A part of this work has been presented at the VI. Congress of the Yugoslav Physiological Society, Ohrid, 1969.
This work was supported by the Boris Kidrič Foundation, Ljubljana, and by the Federal Research Council, Beograd.
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Majcen, Ž., Brzin, M. Localization and activity of cholinesterases in Bidder's ganglion cells and nerve fibers of the frog heart. Histochemie 25, 217–224 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00305940
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00305940