Regional and Subcellular Distribution of Thy‐1 in Human Brain Assayed by a Solid‐Phase Radioimmunoassay

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A solid‐phase radioimmunoassay, specific for the monomeric form of human Thy‐1, was developed and used for quantitation of the Thy‐1 antigen in human brain tissue. Determination of Thy‐1 in homogenates of 12 anatomically defined brain regions showed that Thy‐1 is present throughout the human brain. However, significant variation was found in the expression of the glycoprotein in different regions. Thy‐1 appears to be generally enriched within gray matter: caudate nucleus, cerebral cortex, and putamen were found to contain the highest Thy‐1 concentration (approximately 2.5 μg Thy‐1/mg protein). Interestingly, the cerebellar cortex contained only 25% of the Thy‐1 concentration of cerebral gray matter. Cerebral subcortical white matter contained half the amount of Thy‐1 compared to cerebral cortex. Determination of Thy‐1 in subcellular fractions prepared from human brain biopsy tissue indicated that the highest relative concentration of Thy‐1 is associated with synaptosomal membranes and myelin/axonal membrane fractions.