Acetylcholinesterase activity in chronic renal failure.

Twenty healthy subjects and 39 Chronic Renal Failure patients (CRF-patients) maintained on chronic hemodialysis were used in this investigation to study the changes in acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity of red blood cells (RBCs). The CRF-patients were all undergoing hemodialysis treatment. AChE activity from the CRF-patients was determined before and after dialysis. An additional objective was to study the effect of chronic renal failure on human red blood cell aging. Blood samples were drawn from controls and CRF-patients in tubes containing EDTA or sodium heparin as an anticoagulant. Red blood cells were purified to avoid interference with monocytes, reticulocytes and leukocytes. The purified RBCs were subfractionated into young (y) (1.08-1.09), mid (m) (1.09-1.11) and old (o) (1.11-1.12) percoll density (g/mL) fractions using a discontinous percoll gradient. The mean +/- SD AChE per gram hemoglobin (U/g Hgb) activities in whole blood (WB), purified human red blood cells (PRBCs), young human red blood cells (y-RBCs), mid age human red blood cells (m-RBCs) and old human red blood cells (o-RBCs) in CRF-patients were 31.2+/-3.43, 29.3+/-3.26, 30.4+/-3.91, 25.1+/-5.25, 17.1+/-6.02 in females and 29.8+/-5.39, 28.8+/-5.29, 28.7+/-5.29, 23.7+/-5.39 and 16.0+/-5.60 in males. AChE activity from CRF-patients were higher than that found in the control subjects. The aging of human RBCs in both the controls and CRF-patients showed a progressive reduction in AChE activity. AChE activity of RBCs from female CRF-patients were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of the female control subjects. The RBCs isolated from male CRF-patients showed a higher AChE activity than control males, but a significant difference was only observed with the mid-age-cells. These studies further indicate that AChE activity remained insignificantly different in the various density based age subfractions of RBCs of both CRF-patients and controls.