Butyrylcholinesterase amphiphilic forms of the mucosal cells of rat intestine bind heparin.

Mucosal cells of rat intestine express amphiphilic monomer (G1) and dimer (G2) as well as hydrophilic tetramer (G4) of butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). After incubation with heparin (3 and 15 microM), amphiphilic G2 form showed decreased migrations in nondenaturing electrophoresis whereas in these conditions, the mobility of hydrophilic forms from rat and human serum BChEs was unchanged. Sucrose gradient sedimentation and chromatography performed on HPLC gel filtration and on heparin-Sepharose confirmed that amphiphilic G1 and G2 forms were able to bind heparin. Increasing concentrations of heparin resulted in higher sizes of heparin-BChE complex. These properties of intestinal BChE may be related to the possible occurrence of endogenous heparin in this tissue.