Cholinesterases in blood plasma and tissues of rats treated with n-hexane or with its neurotoxic metabolite 2,5-hexanedione.

Adult male rats were subjected to 4 weeks' respiratory treatment with n-hexane (5000 ppm, 16h/day, 6 days/week); motor conduction velocity was significantly decreased in tail nerves at all weekly intervals and did not approach normal values in the 4 weeks following interruption of treatment. Plasma acetylcholinesterase (AChE) levels were significantly increased at all weekly intervals during treatment (25-40%); 2 weeks after the end of treatment they had returned to baseline. Oral treatment with 2,5-hexanedione (HD) (1% in drinking water) caused a similar increase in plasma levels; this increase was statistically significant also when compared with pair-fed (PF) control rats. A sucrose density gradient analysis showed only one peak of AChE activity at approximately 10 S (as in normal plasma). The levels of butyrylcholinesterase were unaltered in plasma of both n-hexane-and HD-treated rats. Both the fast-contracting EDL and the slow-contracting soleus muscles lost weight in HD-treated rats with respect to free-fed (AL) and PF controls. AChE levels responded differently to HD treatment in the two muscle types: in EDL total extracts, AChE activity increased considerably with respect to AL controls (+ 70%, p less than 0.001), while the levels of the 16 S and 4 S molecular forms were unaltered. The increased levels of AChE found in plasma of rats intoxicated with n-hexane or with its metabolite HD may originate from muscle and correspond to an increased secretion of this molecular form.