Substances with acetylcholine activity in normal rat brain

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Abstract
Extracts of normal rat brain which are assumed to contain the "total acetylcholine" content of the tissue were treated with Reinecke salt at alkaline pH to precipitate quaternary amines and other nitrogen compounds. Chemical examination of the substances separated on the chromatograms suggested that choline, acetylcholine, propionylcholine, butyryl-choline and a mixture of the CoA esters of gamma-butyrobetaine, crotonobetaine and carnitine were present. Aqueous extracts of rat brain contained a mixture of acetylcholine, propionylcholine and butyrylcholine, of which acetylcholine contributed the greatest activity on biological assay with the frog rectus muscle. Deproteinized chloroform-water extracts showed that the CoA esters of the betaine derivatives were present exclusively in this fraction. The choline ester fraction in brain extracts contained less than 20% of the total acetylcholine-like activity, and the CoA esters of the betaine derivatives contributed about 75%.