Induction of Acetylcholine Esterase Activity in a Mouse Neuroblastoma

TISSUE culture lines of mouse neuroblastoma C1300 contain acetylcholine esterase 1 , the specific activity of which depends on the conditions of growth, for the inhibition of cell division leads to an increase in esterase activity 2,3 . Although this suggests that the cessation of division is directly responsible for increased enzyme synthesis, it may also be that the increase of specific activity is the result of (1) neurite formation by differentiating neuroblast cells or (2) events accompanying ageing and cell death. This article describes experiments designed to distinguish between these hypotheses and to examine the regulation of esterases in other tissue culture lines.