Fresh rat brains and fresh anterior and posterior pituitary glands of beef were separated by differential centrifugation into subcellular fractions, characterized on the basis of sedimentation and succinic dehydrogenase activity. Cholinesterase activity was measured by both manometric and colorimetric methods, the results of which were comparable. Cholinesterase activity of rat brain was found mainly in the microsome and supernatant fractions. It was quite uniformly distributed in all subcellular fractions of both anterior and posterior pituitary. Comparisons of the relative rates of hydrolysis of acetylthiocholine and butyrylthiocholine, and of inhibition by eserine, indicated that brain contains a much higher percentage of acetylcholinesterase than do both lobes of the pituitary, which contain relatively low concentrations of the specific enzyme. Total cholinesterase activity and its sensitivity to inhibition by eserine in the posterior pituitary were found to be midway between those of the anterior lobe and of the brain, from which the posterior pituitary was derived during embryological development.
