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Journal of Experimental Biology 46,153-159 (1967)
Published by Company of Biologists 1967

The Penetration of Acetylcholine into the Central Nervous System of the Cockroach Periplaneta Americana L

K. A. LORD ¹, G. E. GREGORY ¹, and P. E. BURT ¹

¹ Department of Insecticides and Fungicides, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts

1. The hydrolysis of acetylcholine and acetylthiocholine by cockroach ventral nerve cords was examined by biochemical and histochemical methods, and used as an indication of the penetration of the substrates into the nerve cord.

2. The rate of penetration of acetylcholine into intact nerve cords, measured biochemically, agrees well with estimates by Treherne & Smith (1965b) using a more direct method.

3. A barrier to the penetration of the two cholinesterase substrates is destroyed by treatment with acetone, which increased the rate of hydrolysis of acetylcholine five- to tenfold.

4. Histochemical tests showed that acetylthiocholine is probably prevented from penetrating freely to the neuropile of the ganglia by the glial cell layer. When the restriction is abolished by treating the cord with acetone, acetylthiocholine reaches the neuropile but penetrates it for only a short distance, probably because it is decomposed by the cholinesterase in this region.