Zymographic characteristics of soluble and bound esterases in nervous tissues and brain tumors.

The Authors describe zymographic characteristics of non specific esterases in human and rat brain and in tumors of the nervous system. Bound and soluble esterases were evidenced using substrate and inhibitor systems in association with detergent extraction. In normal nervous tissues the results confirmed previous observations on the identity of the gray and white matter esterases, except for minor quantitative differences. In brain tumors some peculiar pattern was particularly useful for biological interpretation of tissue differentiation and cell metabolism. The Authors show that the use of Triton X-100 extraction associated with suitable effectors allows a more correct classification of non specific esterases.