Acetylcholinesterase of human intestinal tissue affected by Hirschsprung's disease: effect of magnesium chloride on isoforms.

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) molecular isoforms from anglionic and adjacent unaffected (control) colonic tissue in patients with Hirschsprung's disease (HD) were analysed by density gradient centrifugation in order to determine the major AChE isoforms and the effect of a reported MgCl2 inactivation assay method upon them, with a view to improving the AChE assay used in the diagnosis of Hirschsprung's disease. The total AChE level was greater in the HD-affected colonic tissue than the control tissue (HD: 9.0 vs. control: 7.3 units/g tissue) and this was due to a consistently greater elevation of the globular tetrameric form, G4 (HD: 48.8% vs. control: 35.5% of total AChE). The inactivation of whole tissue homogenates by brief exposure to 4 mol/l MgCl2 followed the same pattern (HD: 48.4% vs. control: 28.7% inactivation). The detergent-extractable G4 is inhibited to a greater extent than the low salt-soluble G4 by exposure to 4 mol/l MgCl2 (83.8% vs. 51.1%). These results imply that the elevated AChE levels in HD are mainly due to increases of the hydrophobic globular tetrameric form of AChE of the same type that is found in differentiating nervous tissue before synapse formation. The monomeric globular isoform G1 is not inhibited but the asymmetric A4, A8 and A12 isoforms are completely inhibited by exposure to 4 mol/l MgCl2. All isoforms of Torpedo (electric ray) electroplax and human erythrocyte AChE, mainly amphiphilic G2, are almost completely inhibited. The inhibition by 4 mol/l MgCl2 of the main G4 isoform in HD-affected intestine accentuates the difference between aganglionic and unaffected intestine in fractionated samples, but does not provide a sufficiently specific G4 isoform assay. The use of 2-4 mol/l MgCl2 in histochemical AChE staining reduces the activity slightly but does not differentiate the tetrameric AChE isoform that is increased in Hirschsprung's disease but does reduce contaminating erythrocyte AChE levels that can obscure the result in blood-stained biopsies. A specific immunochemical stain for hydrophobic AChE tetramers or the associated 20 kDa membrane associated subunit is therefore needed to provide specificity.