title: Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) genotypes and CNTF contents in human sciatic nerves as measured by a sensitive enzyme-linked immunoassay.
abstract: To study the level of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) in human nervous tissues, we developed a sensitive enzyme-linked immunoassay using a specific antibody against human CNTF. This method allowed us to detect as little as 0.3 ng/ml of human CNTF with good linearity and accuracy. Using this method, CNTF levels were determined in human sciatic nerves obtained at autopsy from 21 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients and 48 subjects who had died of other neurological diseases. CNTF genotypes were also determined. The results indicated that CNTF levels were high in the normal homozygotes and approximately halved in the heterozygote subjects. There was, however, no significant difference in CNTF levels in the sciatic nerves between ALS and other neurological disease patients, indicating that the CNTF level was mainly determined by its genotypes and that the level in the sciatic nerves was not reduced in ALS patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience, Japan.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Deguchi
mesh_terms: D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D020934:Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry; D006579:Heterozygote; D006720:Homozygote; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000378:metabolism; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D020934:Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor; D017931:DNA Primers; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins