[Muscarinic receptors on lymphocytes]

The presence of muscarinic receptors on lymphocytes and possible modifications in their number and affinity may be related to cholinergic changes found in muscarinic receptors at a central level.

The objective of this paper is to bring the technique for the determination of lymphocyte muscarinic receptors by means of their union with radioligands for application in the study of disorders involving the cholinergic system, such as Alzheimer's disease, up to date.

We therefore made a density gradient isolation of lymphocytes from healthy subjects and made a trial of union or binding with N-methyl-escopolamine marked with tritium (3H-NMS) on intact lymphocytes.

We were unable to specifically label the muscarinic receptors. However, we have shown the usefulness of the technique, using rat anterior cerebral homogenate.

We consider whether the absence of specific union with the lymphocyte muscarinic receptor is due to technical problems as is often described in the literature, or possibly due to the absence of these receptors on the lymphocyte as suggested by other authors and proved using molecular biology techniques to be the case for the M2 receptor subtype.