Polyacrylamide Disc Electrophoresis of the Proteins of Cerebrospinal Fluid and Brain.

Since one of us (J.N.C.) in 1953 recorded the results of electrophoresis on paper of the proteins of the cerebrospinal fluid and cerebral cyst fluids a number of other supporting media have been employed for this purpose. Some, such as starch, are valuable because of a higher resolving power and a greater ability to separate many of the protein components. The use of the polyacrylamide disc electrophoretic technique of Ornstein and Davis (1962) has been introduced recently and it offered a fresh opportunity to study cerebrospinal fluid and brain proteins by a method which appeared to possess certain advantages over other techniques. This paper records such a study and the results are compared with the findings of other workers using different techniques as well as that of Cunningham (1964) who examined the cerebrospinal fluid with the same method. The method has also been employed for the detection of enzymes, especially lactate dehydrogenase, and of caeruloplasmin.