[Characteristics of specific intermediate filament proteins in human brain tumors]

The content of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was measured in human brain tumours with different histological structure, origin and rate of malignancy. The polypeptide composition of CFAP was established in human brain and tumours by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by immunoblotting. In tumours with an astrocyte type of differentiation, GFAP was revealed as a set of immunologically related and partially degraded polypeptides with a molecular weight of around and below 37 kD. It was assumed that the appearance of intact GFAP polypeptides (49 kD) in some tumours may be considered as a result of penetration of reactive astrocytes into tumour tissue.