[Blood serum of patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis changes neuron electric activity].

An effect of 20% blood serum estimated by the changes of background and excited spike activity of Retzius' neuron by Hirudo medicinalis, which does not contain myelin, has been studied in 2 groups of patients. The first group comprised patients with serum, containing antibodies to gangliosides, and the second one--patients without such antibodies. Incubation of Reitzius neurons in the serum with GM1-antibodies within 40 min resulted in the change of spike form, increase of cell stimulation threshold by average 20%, reduction of the frequency of spontaneous impulse activity by average 28%, decrease of the spikes number in response to the lower frequency (0.

Serum IgG and IgM ganglioside GM1 antibodies in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Introduction: In order to obtain more information concerning the pathogenic significance of ganglioside GM1 in multiple sclerosis serum polyclonal IgG and IgM antibodies to GM1 were evaluated in multiple sclerosis patients with relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive forms of the disease.

Patients And Methods: The evaluated sera were from 55 patients with clinically definite multiple sclerosis and from 20 healthy subjects. Forty-two of patients were with relapsing-remitting and 13 with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.

[Effect of the antibodies to gangliosides on the Retzius neuron electrical activity and the functional activity of sodium channels for incoming current in leech].

In the present study, the effect of antibodies to gangliosides on the Retzius neurons of the leech was investigated to study the spike activity and the functional activity of the Na-channels which generate the spike. A forty-minute incubation of the Retzius neurons in a 20% solution of antiganglioside serum in a Ringer solution provoked appearance of a double spike (a spike with two parts) connected with a decrease of the speed of the activation of the tetrodotoxin (TTX)-sensitive Nachannels. The high frequency synaptic activation of the neuron (10 Hz during 10 minutes) under the plasticity exchange of the gate system of the TTX-sensitive Na-channels.

[Axonal reaction precedes demyelination in experimental models of multiple sclerosis].

Taking into consideration that myelin phospholipids may be partially synthesized in neuronal bodies, while neurilemma readily reacts with antibodies against gangliosides by changing the properties of membrane ionic channels, the attempt was made to test the proposed assumption of the early axonal reaction in demyelinating processes in experimental models of multiple sclerosis. The models of chronic allergic encephalomyelitis in Lewis rats injected with homogenate of highly purified myelin or total brain gangliosides were used. First signs of demyelination (the destruction of intermediate dense lines) were demonstrated in the inner layers of myelin close to axon and were shown to develop synchronously with the aggregation of filamentous-tubular material in the neuroplasm.

Serum ganglioside patterns in multiple sclerosis.

The relative distribution of gangliosides was determined in the serum of 37 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and of 30 healthy subjects. There was a significant increase of GM1 and GD1a, and a decrease of GM3 proportion in the serum of relapsing-remitting MS patients (RRMS) during their first MS attack. The RRMS patients in relapse with a long duration of the disease had a significant decrease of GM1 and an increase of GD1a portion in the serum.

Ganglioside changes in brain in chronic relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis induced in the Lewis rat.

Chronic relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (CREAE) was induced in Lewis rats by inoculation with guinea-pig myelin and complete Freund's adjuvant followed by treatment with low-dose cyclosporin A. Rats were sacrificed at different phases of the disease (just before the onset of clinical signs, during the first clinical episode of CREAE and during the first recovery). Gangliosides were extracted from the brain, analysed after purification by HPTLC fractionation and quantified densitometrically.

[Localization of the synthesis and transport of phospholipids in myelination in the central nervous system].

The phospholipids constitute a larger percentage of the myelin lipids. In the present cytochemical and electronmicroscopic studies we traced the appearance of phospholipids in morphological demonstrable form during the different periods of myelination in the brain of rabbits (from birth to adulthood). Phospholipids are detected in the oligodendrocytes situated along the nerve fibres prior and at very beginning of myelination and the neurons during active myelination.

Ganglioside spinal cord changes in chronic relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis induced in the Lewis rats.

Chronic relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (CREAE) was induced in Lewis rats by inoculation with guinea-pig myelin and complete Freund's adjuvant followed by treatment with low-dose cyclosporin A. Rats were sacrified at different phases of the disease (just before the onset of clinical signs, during the first clinical episode of CREAE and during the first recovery). Gangliosides were extracted from the spinal cord, analysed after purification by two-dimensional chromatography and quantified densitometrically.

[Chronic relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in Lewis rats as a model of multiple sclerosis].

Chronic relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (CR EAE) was induced in Lewis rats by inoculation with guinea-pig myelin and complete Freund's aduvant followed by treatment with low dose cyclosporin A. Histological, histochemical and electron microscopic studies of the lesions during the first and the second clinical episodes, as well as during the first and the second remissions, revealed inflammation, prominent demyelination, remyelination and gliosis in the central nervous system (CNS). This model of CR EAE in the Lewis rats may be a useful model for multiple sclerosis.

A histochemical method for demonstration of 2',3'-cyclic 3'-phosphohydrolase activity.

A histochemical method for demonstration of 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphohydrolase activity is proposed. Cryostat sections, fixed in chlorophorm-methanol mixture, are incubated in a solution containing cyclic adenosine 2',3'-monophosphate, acid phosphatase, lead nitrate in acetate buffer, pH = 6,4 or 6.5.

[Adaptive-compensatory reaction of the brain to irradiation].

In totally irradiated chick and rat embryos, young chicks and rats structural functional activity of the subcellular reparative processes in the brain cortex was studied. The animals were given an irradiation dose of 600 and 1,200 rad. In embryo-genesis and in early postnatal period, the adaptive compensatory response in shown after X-ray irradiation to be characterized by subcellular changes and organell hypertrophy of the neurons in the CNS accompanied by disturbances in metabolic and synthesis processes.