Acetylcholine levels in the spinal cord after atropine, diisopropylfluorophosphate and naphthylvinylpyridine.

The decay of ACh levels from the death of the rat to longer time intervals has been estimated in the rat cervical spinal cord. The ACh levels at the beginning of the postmortal decay have been evaluated by extrapolation to t = 0 of the linear regressions log ACh concentrations vs time (t) from the rat decapitation. Atropine, diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP) and naphthylvinylpyridine (NVP) caused a reduction of the ACh levels evaluated before the beginning of the postmortal decay. The levels of ACh at stabilization of the postmortal decay were increased by atropine and DFP. These effects may be correlated to modifications caused by the studied drugs on the ACh synthesis, release and destruction.