Abstract
Summary
Vertical starch-gel electrophoresis has been used for preparation of esterase zymograms of postmortem specimens of human brain. The specimens derived from 36 cases without a history of significant neurologic disability and 13 cases of multiple sclerosis. Certain esterases hydrolyzing alpha-naphthyl propionate were consistently demonstrable in, and characteristic of, zymograms of white matter from normal specimens. These were absent from zymograms of multiple sclerosis plaques. Alpha-naphthyl acetate zymograms of plaques and macroscopically-normal white matter from multiple sclerosis specimens showed frequently loss of, or diminution in activity of, the 6th, 7th and 9th anodally-migrating esterase bands, but alteration in bands 6 and 7 was not specific for multiple sclerosis. The cholinesterase activity of plaque tissue appeared to be diminished in comparison with that of macroscopically-uninvolved white matter from the same case, and one or more bands were absent in the plaque. The electrophoretic mobility of esterases of the plaque, and sometimes of grossly uninvolved multiple sclerosis white matter, appeared to be greater than that of normal specimens examined under identical conditions of electrophoresis.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.