Figure 2

Western blot analyses for vimentin. a. Western blots for vimentin. Ten-lane precast gels were used. Each lane had an individual 5 μl sample of CSF from the categories of patients shown. After protein separation using SDS PAGE they were blotted onto a PVDF membrane for probing with antibodies. ECL detection was used to visualise the labelled bands and for semi-quantitative analysis using Image-J software. A single 55 KDa band was labelled using the antibody to vimentin and only detected in 2 of the 4 LOH samples or glial cell lysates (last lane except for LOH where it was not run on this particular gel) as shown in these representative gels. All samples were run a minimum of 3 times with a total number of samples as given for semi-quantitative analysis. No significant differences to normal were detected in any group even LOH where two samples had this protein and 2 not. A greater sample number is needed to test if vimentin is generally present in LOH or not. Patient groups as for Figure 1. b. Semi-quantitative analysis of the 55 KDa band labelled with anti-vimentin antibody relative to the background stain of normal samples where this protein was not detected. Values are Mean ± SEM of Normal n = 8, FOH n = 4, LOH n = 4, PHH n = 4, SB/ HC n = 4. Rat (postnatal P1) astrocyte cell lysates were used as a positive control for the vimentin antibody. No significant differences were found.