1999 Volume 43 Issue 1 Pages 17-21
Determination of oligoclonal IgG bands (OGB) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has diagnostic value in multiple sclerosis. In this paper, we describe a modified method for the detection of OGB in unconcentrated CSF. We used agarose electrophoresis followed by protein transfer to PVDF membrane and immunodetection with the following two modifications. First, we omitted equilibration step of the gels with transfer buffer before blotting. Second, for enhanced staining of alkaline phosphatase, we used a suitable mixture of BCIP and NBT for developing solution. These modifications made this method approximately 30 times more sensitive than immunofixation method. Of 83 unconcentrated CSF samples examined, 11 were positive for OGB with our method. On the other hand, with the immunofixation, despite using twenty-five times concentrated samples, only four were positive and four were equivocal. These results suggest that our modified method is useful for the screening of OGB in unconcentrated CSF.
