Detection for the Changes in Isoelectric Point Distribution of Cerebrospinal Fluid Albumin in Neurological Patients Using Simplified Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis

[Summary] A simplified two-dimensional electrophoresis system for the analysis of human body fluid proteins has been developed employing commercial supporting media. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum proteins were separated respectively into more than 60 (in total) spots on the basis of first dimensional usual electrophoresis on agarose-gel films (Corning Universal and Helena Titan Gel syttems etc.) and second dimensional isoelectrofocusing on polyacrylamide-gel plates (LKB Ampholine PAG Plates, pH 3.5-9.5 etc.).The results of examination of 45 CSF samples and the concurrent sera from 37 various central nervous system disease patients indicated that a part of albumin with higher pI distribution than the most acidic spot of transferrin is consistently present in all the sera, but not detected in CSF with the normal protein content (15-40 mg/dl). However, such high pI albumin was found on the electrophoretograms of raised protein leveled CSF (50-960 mg-dl), and increase of its densitometric values in scanning of the dried coomassie-stained gels along the first dimensional albumin region was generally correlated with elevation of the total CSF protein content. It is considered from these findings that the blood-CSF barrier normally excludes not only macromolecular plasma proteins but also a part of albumin.