Abstract
THE neurones of the central nervous system that contain catecholamines, or serotonin, can be visualised histochemically by the highly fluorescent products that they form in the presence of formaldehyde vapour1. No such elegant method exists for demonstrating the cholinergic neurones. Published methods for the histochemical localisation of cholinergic terminals and choline acetyltransferase (ChAc)2–5, which is considered to be exclusive to them6, are indirect and non-specific. Recently, ChAc has been purified and partially characterised from bovine caudate nuclei7. We report here (1) the production of specific precipitating antibody against bovine ChAc in the guinea pig; (2) characterisation of the antibody by immunodiffusion, by immunoelectrophoresis, by electrophoresis of the specific immunoprecipitates and by enzyme analyses, and (3) the visualisation of the cholinergic neurones in the central nervous system by the immunofluorescent method using specific antibody against purified ChAc. The specific antibody to ChAc can now be used in conjunction with the recently improved immunohistological technique8 to map the cholinergic pathway in the nervous system and to establish the localisation of the enzyme within the cholinergic neurone and its processes at the cellular level. Using the horse radish peroxidase technique8 and specific antibody to the glial fibrillary acidic protein, this astrocyte specific protein has been localised only within fibrous astrocytes and their processes at the light and electron microscopic levels9.
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ENG, L., UYEDA, C., CHAO, L. et al. Antibody to bovine choline acetyltransferase and immunofluorescent localisation of the enzyme in neurones. Nature 250, 243–245 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/250243a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/250243a0
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