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PROTEIN CONTENT OF CSF IN NORMAL CHILDREN PERSONAL INVESTIGATIONS
Publication year - 1958
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1958.tb05390.x
Subject(s) - albumin , medicine , csf albumin , endocrinology , blood proteins , globulin , cerebrospinal fluid , zoology , biology
Summary The results of the determinations of the total protein content and of the electrophoretic analyses of the CSF in normal children may be summarised as follows. In newborns the average protein content of the CSF was much larger and the individual variations much wider than later in childhood. After a successive decrease the mean total protein content dropped to its lowest level between the ages of 9 months to 2 years, at the same time as the individual spread decreased markedly. At 2 years of age the total protein content of the CSF again successively increased and continued to do so during the rest of childhood. Of the electrophoretically separated protein fractions of the CSF albumin in its variation with age showed a distinct parallelism with the total protein. The mean value found for the albumin concentration of the CSF – expressed as a percentage of the total protein – was thus highest in the neonatal period and lowest between the ages of 9 months and 2 years, after which it again began to increase. The other protein fractions of the CSF, except the gamma‐globulin, showed roughly the converse variation. The physiologic basis for these changes in the amount and composition of the CSF protein in different ages is probably a variation in the relative amount of the admixture of serum protein during passage of the CSF from the ventricles to the lumbar subarachnoidal space. The increased addition observed below 9 months of age is probably due to an increased permeability of the blood‐CSF barrier. The changes occurring after 2 years are probably related to a relatively decreasing function of the choroidal plexus with increasing age. Immediately after birth the relative albumin concentration in the CSF was higher than in the serum. The physiologic basis of this is presumably mechanical irritation of the meninges in association with delivery and subsequent increase of passage of serum protein into the CSF space, especially of the relatively finely dispersed albumin molecules.