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SERUM ‘ANTI‐MYELIN ANTIBODIES’: A SPECTROFLUOROMETRIC ASSAY PROCEDURE 1
Author(s) -
Suzuki K.,
Bornstein M. B.,
Tiffany Carol W.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-4159.1975.tb11886.x
Subject(s) - myelin , encephalomyelitis , antibody , spinal cord , chemistry , myelin basic protein , microbiology and biotechnology , immunology , multiple sclerosis , central nervous system , pathology , biology , medicine , endocrinology , neuroscience
— A simple spectrofluorometric procedure has been devised to determine serum antibodies, directed to constituents of the myelin sheath. It is an adaptation of the indirect immunofluorescent technique. A suspension of highly purified bovine myelin is incubated successively with a test rabbit serum and fluoresceinisothiocyanate‐conjugated anti‐rabbit gamma‐globulin. Intensity of fluorescence in the final myelin suspension is determined spectrofluorometrically. Sera from rabbits with experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, induced by whole bovine spinal cord, generally gave fluorescence at least 10 times that of normal rabbit serum. Fluorescence of sera with high demyelinating activity was more intense than that of sera with equivocal demyelinating activity. The assay is specific for immunoglobulins directed to myelin constituents, organ‐specific and species‐independent. Rabbit anti‐galactosylceramide serum with known demyelinating activity gave high fluorescence similar to that in sera of rabbits inoculated with whole spinal cord. Galactosylceramide could absorb a substantial portion of‘anti‐myelin antibodies’of the anti‐galactosylceramide serum but it did not absorb‘anti‐myelin antibodies’of serum of rabbits with whole tissue‐induced experimental allergic encephalomyelitis. This assay system may be useful for further studies of ‘anti‐myelin antibodies’.