Synopsis
The presence of cholinesterase activity in association with capillaries of the central nervous system was investigated in the rat by means of both light and electron microscopic methods. Throughout most of the rat brain, the smaller blood vessels stain intensely for butyrylcholinesterase activity. In some areas, such as the commissural nucleus of the vagus and parts of the medial thalamus, the capillaries possess both acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase activity. Blood vessels in those structures which lie outside the blood-brain barrier are completely devoid of cholinesterase activity. The electron microscope reveals that reaction product occurs within the matrix of the basement membrane, in the intermembranous space of the endothelial nuclear envelope and occasionally in the endothelial granular endoplasmic reticulum. It is suggested that the presence of cholinesterase within the basement membrane of brain capillaries is evidence of the role that the basement membrane may play in transfer mechanisms.
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Flumerfelt, B.A., Lewis, P.R. & Gwyn, D.G. Cholinesterase activity of capillaries in the rat brain. A light and electron microscopic study. Histochem J 5, 67–77 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01012046
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01012046