Cholinesterase levels in hand-reared and suckling rats

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Rats which had been hand-reared on boiled cow''s milk during the first 2-days of life showed the same increase in serum cholinesterase activity as litter- mates which had been left with their mothers. Rats hand-reared between 7 and 11 days of age, when the level of serum cholinesterase remains constant in the normal rat, had the same levels of activity as control litter-mates despite a 50%, increase in blood volume during this period. It is concluded that the level of the enzyme is not influenced by suckling. The feeding of homologous sera, or sow or bitch colostrum, all of high cholinesterase activity to young rats did not result in any increase in the serum cholinesterase activities of the latter. After the fractionation with ether of sera from adult rats, the cholinesterase activity was mainly associated with those fractions containing only [alpha]- and [beta]-globulins. During electrophoresis on paper the cholinesterase migrated between the [beta]- and gamma -globulins. The cholinesterase in bitch colostrum migrated at a similar rate. The failure of the suckling rat to absorb the enzyme is consistent with a hypothesis that the absorption of protein is correlated with its electrophoretic mobility.

This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit: