Nerve-specific enolase and creatine phosphokinase in axonal transport: soluble proteins and the axoplasmic matrix.

The axonal transport of two soluble enzymes of intermediary metabolism was evaluated: the nerve-specific form of the glycolytic enzyme enolase (NSE) and the brain isozyme of creatine phosphokinase (CPK). Previously, little was known about the intracellular movements of the soluble proteins of the cell. Although the soluble enzymes of glycolysis and other pathways of intermediary metabolism have been thought to be freely diffusing in the cytosol, many are required in the axonal extremities of the neuron and must be transported to the sites of utilization. Comigration of purified enzymes with radioactive polypeptides associated with specific rate components of axonal transport in two-dimensional gel electrophoresis indicates that both NSE and CPK move in the axon solely as part of the group of proteins known as slow component b (SCb) at a rate of 2 mm/day. Peptide mapping following limited proteolysis confirmed identification of NSE and CPK in SCb. Materials associated with SCb have been shown to move coherently along the axon and to behave as a discrete cellular structure, the axoplasmic matrix. Association of two soluble enzymes, NSE and CPK, with the SCb complex of proteins requires a reevaluation of the assumption that these and other soluble proteins of the axon are freely diffusible.