Analysis of cerebrospinal fluid from patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders by two‐dimensional electrophoresis: Identification of disease‐associated polypeptides as fibrin fragments

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Abstract
Two‐dimensional electrophoresis (2‐DE) of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples–from 347 patients with various psychiatric and neurological disorders–and subsequent silver staining revealed two additional polypeptides (Mr 40000) in 49% of 111 schizophrenics, 46 % of 43 schizoaffective patients, 36 % of 41 patients with affective disorders, 43 % of 28 patients with multiple sclerosis, but not in 25 patients without neurological symptomatology, nor in 9 patients with Lues, and in only 2 of 25 patients with AIDS. The two polypeptides, as detected by 2‐DE, eluted after size exclusion chromatography in fractions containing proteins with Mr > 200000. After 2‐DE of CSF samples, enriched by gel chromatography, the polypeptides were immobilized by blotting onto glass‐fiber membranes and subjected to N‐terminal sequencing. Polypeptide A was identified as β‐chain remnant (β2), derived from plasmin cleavage of fibrin(ogen). After size exclusion chromatography, 2‐DE, and Western blotting, polypeptide A and B, as well as several other spots, reacted with fibrinogen antibodies, suggesting that the polypeptides are subunits of a fibrin degradation complex.