Two‐dimensional electrophoresis of cerebrospinal fluid proteins in multiple sclerosis and various neurological diseases

Proteins from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were separated by two‐dimensional electrophoresis (2‐DE), visualized with silver staining and quantitated with computer‐assisted densitometry. This report describes the polypeptide variations observed and their correlations to disease states. CSF from 22 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients was compared to CSF from: 20 non‐inflammatory neurological disease cases (NINDC), 17 inflammatory neurological disease cases (INDC) including a sub‐set of 6 patients with sub‐acute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) and 14 normal volunteers. In a specific comparison between the MS group and the normal volunteers, 32% of the polypeptides varied quantitatively (p < 0.05 or greater). The NINDC group resembled the normal volunteers, while the INDC and SSPE groups resembled the MS group. In general, the quantitative changes in the polypeptides analysed in this study permit one to distinguish one disease state from another. In addition to these quantitative alterations, we also report the appearance of additional immunoglobulin light chain species in MS, SSPE, Herpes simplex encephalitis, neurosyphilis, one patient with Shy‐Drager syndrome and one patient with idiopathic orthostatic hypotension. No other disease‐specific qualitative changes were observed in the form of either deletions of proteins normally present, or additional proteins. This survey utilizing 2‐DE has demonstrated protein alterations in the CSF of patients with varied neurological diseases compared with normal CSF, which may prove useful in clinical diagnosis.