Detection of myelin basic protein-like material in cerebrospinal fluid of multiple sclerosis patients by immunoblot assay.

Myelin basic protein (MBP)-like material in 15 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) was analyzed by isoelectric focusing (IEF) followed by immunoblot assay using rabbit antiserum against human MBP- peptide 69-89, which contains the dominant epitope for MBP-like material. Samples from seven of 10 MS patients with disease in the exacerbation stage showed one band and in three other samples, a number of faint bands also appeared in the alkaline pH region in addition to the one band. CSF from five MS patients whose disease was in remission showed no detectable bands. Our results are consistent with those obtained by quantitative assay, reported in the literature.