Abstract
EXPERIMENTS with anticholinesterases have shown that the pseudocholinesterase of rat, dog and man can be inhibited without eliciting any symptoms of acetylcholine accumulation in the intact animal1. On the other hand, inhibition of the true cholinesterase by more than 80 per cent leads to acute disturbances indicative of acetylcholine poisoning, while complete inhibition of the true cholinesterase activity is invariably fatal. These results support the original classification of the cholinesterases according to physiological function as proposed by Mendel and Rudney2, who surmised that the destruction of acetylcholine in the body, wherever it takes place rapidly, is brought about mainly, if not exclusively, by the true cholinesterase.
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References
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ADMIRAAL, J., MYERS, D. & VAN HOUTEN, J. Effect of Inhibition of Cholinesterase on the Motility of the Small Intestine. Nature 176, 468–469 (1955). https://doi.org/10.1038/176468a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/176468a0
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