Measurement of GFAP in hepatic encephalopathy by ELISA and transblots

Basal ganglia, cerebral cortex and subcortical white matter were studied for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in four cases of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) with Alzheimer II gliosis and five age-matched controls. GFAP was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reflectance densitometry of immunoperoxidase-stained western blots. Both methods revealed a 70% decrease in the average amount of GFAP in the cerebral cortex and a 60% decrease in the basal ganglia in HE cases. GFAP in white matter was not significantly changed. In contrast to GFAP, the average protein content was not significantly different for HE and controls. These findings support the view that HE is a neurological disease in which there is a selective loss of GFAP from the grey matter.