title: Thymus acetylcholinesterase activity is reduced in mice with congenital muscular dystrophy.
abstract: Lama2dy mice constitute an animal model for congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD) by merosin (laminin alpha2-chain) deficiency. This pathology affects the properties of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) of mouse skeletal muscle and nerves (Moral-Naranjo et al., 1999, 2002). AChE and BChE are involved through catalytic and noncatalytic actions in multiple processes, such as hydrolysis of acetylcholine (ACh), morphogenesis, hematopoiesis, and tumorigenesis (Soreq and Seidman, 2001). AChE and BChE molecules can be globular (G1, G2, and G4) or asymmetric forms (A4, A8, and A12) (Massoulié, 2002), and G molecules can show amphiphilic (detergent-interacting, GA) or hydrophilic (GH) behavior. AChE catalytic subunits are encoded by three mRNAs (T, H, or R) generated by alternative splicing. The presence of AChE in lymphoid tissues (Rossi et al., 1991; Nieto-Cerón et al., 2004), the role of immune responses in muscular dystrophy (Spencer and Tidball, 2001), the abnormalities of Lama2dy thymus (Magner et al., 2000), and the role of ACh in thymocyte function (Kawashima and Fujii, 2000) prompted us to investigate thymus AChE and the possible effect of merosin deficiency on it.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular-A, Universidad de Murcia, 30071 Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nieto-Cerón
authors.forename: Luis F Sánchez
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: del Campo
authors.forename: Encarnación Muñoz
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Delgado
authors.forename: Cecilio J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Vidal
authors.forename: Francisco Javier
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Campoy
mesh_terms: D000110:Acetylcholinesterase / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D007797:Laminin / Q000172:deficiency; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000201:enzymology; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D009137:Muscular Dystrophy, Animal / Q000201:enzymology*; D012016:Reference Values; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D007527:Isoenzymes; D007797:Laminin; D000110:Acetylcholinesterase