Figure 5.

Acetylcholinesterase inhibition increases phagocytic activity of splenic macrophages but does not alter intestinal motility. Spleen cells were prepared as described above and used to isolate CD11b⁺ cells by enrichment on magnetic columns. (A) FACS analysis of splenic CD11b⁺ cells before and after enrichment. (B) Purified CD11b⁺ cells were assayed for phagocytic activity. The graph depicts the fold increase in phagocytic activity of purified macrophages from paraoxon-pretreated mice as compared to saline control. Asterisks denote statistically significant differences between groups (*p < 0.05). (C) In another set of experiments, intestinal motility was assessed 72 h after the last dose of paraoxon/saline, as described in Section “Materials and Methods.” Intestinal transit was measured and calculated as percentage of the total length of the small intestine in each animal. Graphs depict mean values ± SEM of three mice/group from a representative one of two independent experiments.