ACTIVITY OF ALDEHYDE DEHYDROGENASE, ALDEHYDE REDUCTASE, AND ACETYLCHOLINE ESTERASE IN STRITATUM OF RATS BEARING ELECTROLYTIC LESIONS OF THE MEDIAL FOREBRAIN BUNDLE

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Abstract
—: A number of enzymes have been measured in the striatum of rats in which the dopamine‐containing nerve terminals had been unilaterally destroyed by means of unipolar electrolytic lesions of the medial fore‐brain bundle. Fourteen and 28 days after such lesions the tyrosine hydroxylase activity of the striatum was reduced to immeasurably low values, but neither aldehyde dehydrogenase, aldehyde reductase, nor acetylcholine esterase was affected when compared with the striatum from the intact side of the same rat or with those from control rats. These results indicate that in the rat the 3 enzymes are not localized with tyrosine hydroxylase, in the dopaminergic nerve terminals of the striatum. This conclusion is supported by a study of the subcellular localization of aldehyde dehydrogenase in rat brain. This enzyme is distributed between the cytosol and the particulate fraction of brain homogenates separated by centrifugal techniques. with no exceptionally high concentration of the enzyme in the synaptosomal fraction. Because neither of the enzymes of post‐deaminative catabolism of dopamine is concentrated in the dopaminergic nerve terminals of the striatum of the rat, it is proposed that in this species the amine is not necessarily taken up by the nerve terminals prior to catabolism.