A novel cholinergic-specific antigen (Chol-2) in mammalian brain.

Three new antisera have been raised in sheep against cholinergic electromotor presynaptic plasma membranes prepared from the electric organs of the electric ray, Torpedo marmorata. They all recognized one or more cholinergic-specific antigens in the mammalian nervous system by the following criteria: they sensitized the cholinergic subpopulation of rat-brain synaptosomes--and only this subpopulation--to lysis by the complement system and, in an immunocytochemical study, selectively stained choline acetyltransferase-positive cholinergic neurons in the rat spinal cord. However, two of the three antisera failed to recognize Chol-1 alpha and -beta, two closely related minor gangliosides already…