Acetylcholinesterase distribution in chick spinal cord cultures. A light and electron microscope study

Explants of 10--12 day chick embryo spinal cord were cultured by coverslip-roller tube method for 3-80 days. The cellular and subcellular localization of acetylcholinesterase activity in cultured neurons was studied by the thiocholine techniques of Karnovsky and Roots and Lewis and Shute. At the light microscopic level, acetylcholinesterase was demonstrated in the neurons of both ventral and dorsal horn regions. Occasionally neurons migrated in the outgrowth zone exhibited strong intracellular activity. At the electron microscopic level, acetylcholinesterase activity was found in the nuclear envelope, granular endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus of the neurons. No enzyme reaction was detected in the glial cell cytoplasm.