Measurement of pre- and post-synaptic proteins in cerebral cortex: effects of post-mortem delay.

Assessments of synaptic density in human brain are often based on measurements of synaptic proteins. Little information is available on their post-mortem stability. We have investigated this by ELISAs of the pre-synaptic proteins syntaxin and synaptophysin, and the post-synaptic protein PSD-95, in rat and human cortex.