S-100 protein level alterations in the central nervous system of three neurological mutant mice

S-100 protein level has been examined in parallel in brain hemispheres, pons medulla, cerebellum and spinal cord of three neurological mutants and of their normal littermates. Increased level was found in the brain of Quaking, myelin-deficient mutant. Decreased level was found in spinal cord of Jimpey mice, also a myelin deficient mutant, and in all areas of Dwarf mutant, growth hormone-deficient. On the basis of the known glial cell alterations in the myelin-deficient mutants the results suggest the presence of S-100 protein in the two classes of glial cells, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. In Dwarf mutant the results are consistent either with a decreased number of glial cells or with some kind of dependence of S-100 protein level on the presence of growth hormone.