Acetylcholine binding protein of mollusks is unlikely to act as a regulator of cholinergic neurotransmission at neurite-neurite synaptic sites in vivo.

A population of glial cells in the central nervous system of the gastropod mollusk Lymnaea stagnalis produces a soluble protein that specifically binds acetylcholine. This protein is named the acetylcholine binding protein (AChBP). Experiments performed in vitro indicated that AChBP inactivates released acetylcholine at cholinergic synapses. On the basis of these observations, a similar in vivo role for AChBP was hypothesized. To fulfill this function, AChBP-expressing glia ought to be located in close proximity to cholinergic synapses in vivo. To examine this, we have analyzed the cellular and subcellular expression of AChBP in the intact CNS. Using a variety of molecular techniques, we demonstrate here that AChBP expression is confined to a subpopulation of glial cells located within the peripheral zone of each of the ganglia constituting the CNS. This zone contains the cell bodies of neurons, but few synapses. Conversely, glial cells that do not express the AChBP are predominantly located in the synapse-rich central neuropile zone but are rare in the cell body zone. Thus, our findings are not compatible with the previous conclusions drawn from in vitro studies and suggest that AChBP functions in vivo as a regulator of nonsynaptic cholinergic transmission.