On the tau-protein in cerebrospinal fluid

Abstract

128 cerebrospinal fluid samples were obtained. About 5 mul of each of the samples was subjected unconcentrated to agar gel electrophoresis. The remaining 44 of these samples were concentrated and the concentrates were electrophoresed. The proteins were stained. Analysis of the relative mobilities of the peaks makes two conclusions possible: the albumin in cerebrospinal fluid has the same electrophoretic mobility as purified serum albumin. The tau-protein possibly arises from transferrin by proteolytic breakdown, some products (such as the classical tau-protein) being less unstable than others (the intermediate peaks).