Cerebrospinal fluid "specific" proteins in various degenerative neurological diseases.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients suffering from various degenerative neurological diseases was fractionated into "CSF-specific" and antigenically serum-like proteins, using affinity chromatography with antihuman serum antibodies. The samples were isoelectric focused. Protein patterns were compared to similarly treated CSF from young normal volunteers and age matched controls. Several changes are described and 2 pathological patterns of the CSF-specific fraction could be identified. One pattern was characteristic for Alzheimer's dementia (AD) and senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT), but also seen in a few other diseases. The other pattern was seen in several of the investigated groups, most prominent in Huntington's chorea.