Cholinesterase of skeletal muscle and its subcellular components

The cholinesterase activity of skeletal muscle and its subcellular components, including motor endplates, was compared chemically in human, mouse and rat. The total cholinesterase activity of muscle per unit protein was in the descending order of human, mouse and rat. Cholinesterase was present in all subcellular components fractionated by differential centrifugation, and was greatest in the microsome fraction followed, in descending order, by the mitochondria, myofibril, and supernatant fractions. Each of these fractions had greater cholinesterase activity in human muscle than in mouse muscle, and in mouse muscle than in rat muscle. The ratio of the activity of the microsome fraction to the activity of muscle homogenate was 11.1 in human, 4.6 in mouse and 3.4 in rat. Because of its relatively greater proportion, the myofibril fraction seems to contribute most to the total cholinesterase activity of muscle. Muscle membrane contained high cholinesterase activity of motor endplates, and the activity was greater than the activity of the microsome fraction in rat. Cholinesterase activity per motor endplate was in the descending order of rat, human and mouse, and the variation was less than the variation in the total muscle cholinesterase activity among these species.