Regulation of choline acetyltransferase activity by cell density in a cultured human neuroblastoma cell line

Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), the biosynthetic enzyme for acetylcholine metabolism, is expressed in a human cholinergic neuroblastoma cell line; MC-IXC. We demonstrate that ChAT activity is regulated in this cell line by cell density. It is believed that the mechanism of stimulation of enzyme activity involves cellular contact, as medium conditioned by cells of high density failed to mimic the effect of density alone, and trypsinization reversed this effect. Density did not increase acetylcholinesterase activity, another marker for the cholinergic phenotype, in MC-IXC cultures, demonstrating the independent regulation of these two cholinergic enzymes. Since increased density slows the rate of cell division, we used a DNA synthesis inhibitor to uncouple DNA replication from cell density. This had no effect on the specific activity of ChAT, suggesting that a cell-cell contact was the mediating factor. Other neuroblastoma cell lines were tested, and only cell lines which already contain ChAT activity were sensitive to its regulation by cell-cell contact, suggesting that cell-cell contact is permissive rather than instructive in this process. The effect of cell passage on ChAT activity is also discussed.