Pseudocholinesterase in obesity: Hypercaloric diet induced changes in experimental obese mice

Summary Pseudocholinesterase activity is significantly higher in liver and serum, but lower in adipose tissue of genetically obese, diabetic and gold thioglucose treated mice. Similar enzyme changes were also observed in lean mice on a high carbohydrate diet. A marked reduction (40%) in PChE activity occurred in the liver of genetically diabetic mice when starved for 24 h. These observations suggest that pseudocholinesterase induction in the liver and repression in the adipose tissue is affected by excessive calorie intake in obesity. This provides a model to study the biological function of PChE in health and disease.Acknowledgments. We thank Dr Charles A. Janeway Child Health Centre and Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland for financial support.