Prevention of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a major goal of biomedical sciences. In previous studies we showed that high intake of the essential nutrient, choline, during gestation prevented age-related memory decline in a rat model. In this study we investigated the effects of a similar treatment on AD-related phenotypes in a mouse model of AD. We crossed wild type (WT) female mice with hemizygo...

This study evaluated cholineresterase inhibitory activity of Korean white ginseng extract (WGE), red ginseng extract (RGE), and black ginseng extract (BGE) and the cholinergic effect on scopolamine (SCOP)-induced amnesic mice. WGE, RGE, and BGE inhibited acetylcholineserase (AChE), as well as butyrylcholineserase (BuChE) in a concentration-dependent manner. BGE presented strong inhibition of AC...

The visual and somatic sensory cortex were investigated. The activity of acetylcholinesterase and lactate dehydrogenase was similar in the pretrigeminal and non-operated cats. The activity of these two enzymes, as well as that of choline acetyltransferase, butyrylcholinesterase and acid phosphatase was similar 3 and 8 h after the pretrigeminal transection. Results support the possibility of uti...

Starburst amacrine cells are a prominent neuron type in the mammalian retina that has been well-studied for its role direction-selective information processing. One specific property of these is their dendrites tightly stratify at depths within inner plexiform layer (IPL), which, together with unique expression choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), made them most common depth marker studying other ...

Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) synthesizes the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, at cholinergic nerve terminals. ChAT contains nuclear localization signals and is also localized in the nuclei of neural and non-neuronal cells. Nuclear ChAT might have an as yet unidentified function, such as transcriptional regulation. In this study, we investigated the alteration of candidate gene transcription...

The effects of yokukansan and donepezil on learning disturbance and aggressiveness were examined in amyloid β protein (Aβ)-injected mice. Intellicage tests showed that both yokukansan and donepezil ameliorated Aβ-induced learning disturbance, but the ameliorating effect of donepezil was not enhanced by concomitant administration of yokukansan. On the other hand, a social interaction test showed...

Immunohistochemical localization of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in cholinergic neurons has been difficult to achieve because of problems encountered in producing specific antisera. Here we describe the production and characterization of several distinct monoclonal antibodies to ChAT. Each of the monoclonal antibodies exhibits one of three general patterns of cross-species reactions; one pa...

An ethanolic extract of Allium tuberosum Rottl. demonstrated potent choline acetytrasferase (ChAT) activating activity (45%) among 30 screened Korean edible plants. The ChAT activator of A. tuberoum Rottl. was purified and identified as ferulic acid [4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamic acid] via silica-gel open-column chromatography, HPLC, EI-MS, and 1H/13C-NMR. The ferulic acid from A. tuberoum Rottl....

After coronary artery occlusion, enzymes involved in the synthesis of sympathetic and parasympathetic neurotransmitters may change disparately. We investigated this in the canine heart by measuring the activity of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and choline acetyltransferase (CAT) in normal and ischemic tissue. Myocardial blood flow in selected regions was measured by the microsphere technique. Dogs ...

The development of cholinergic cells in the rat retina has been examined with immunocytochemistry by using antisera against choline acetyltransferase (ChAT). ChAT-immunoreactive (IR) cells were first detected at embryonic day 17 (E17) in the transitional zone between the neuroblastic layer (NBL) and ganglion cell layer (GCL). At E20, ChAT-IR cells are located exclusively in the GCL. At postnata...