Background: Butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) catalyzes the hydrolysis of acetylcholine and other choline esters and is also involved in lipid metabolism. The purpose of this study was to investigate any association between BuChE serum phenotype and activity and lipid profile of ischemic stroke patients.
Methods: We determined serum BuChE activities and phenotypes, and levels of total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C, HDL-C and triacylglyerol (TG) in 33 patients with acute ischemic stroke within 12 h of the onset of the attack and 29 controls.
Results: The mean (+/-SD) serum BuChE activity and the BuChE of U/A phenotype in the stroke individuals were significantly lower and higher than that of the control (315 (+/-124) IU/L. vs. 384 (+/-99) IU/L, p=0.02, t=-2.4 and 21.2% vs.3.4%, p=0.026 respectively).
Conclusions: Our results showed that a negative correlation between BuChE activity with TC level, in addition the frequency of BuChE phenotypes with low activity is high in stroke patients, who have high levels of cholesterol, may have increased susceptibility to stroke.