Towards a high resolution separation of human cerebrospinal fluid

Human cerebrospinal fluid is an ultrafiltrate of plasma that is largely produced by the choroid plexus. It consists of a mixture of anorganic salts, various sugars, lipids and proteins from the surrounding brain tissues. The predominant proteins in cerebrospinal fluid are isoforms of serum albumin, transferrin and immunoglobulins, representing more than 70% of the total protein amount. A rough overview of the protein compounds of human cerebrospinal fluid including their respective concentrations is given by Blennow et al. [Eur. Neurol. 33 (1993) 129]. In contrast, the aim of this work is to display the detailed protein composition of CSF by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and to identify both high and low concentrated proteins using different mass spectrometry techniques. This extensive overview of proteins in human cerebrospinal fluid will be highly relevant for clinical research. Furthermore, the comparison of 2D gels will help to analyze the standard protein variability in CSF of healthy persons and detect specific protein variations of patients with various neurological diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's chorea). Sample preparation for two-dimensional gel electrophoresis must include concentration and desalting steps such as precipitation and ultrafiltration due to the high amount of salts, sugars and lipids and the low total amount of protein of 0.3-0.7 microg/microl present in human CSF. Up to now we were able to identify more than 480 spots from suchlike generated 2D gels using MALDI- and ESI-mass spectrometry.