Size and Surface Charge Properties of Myelin Vesicles from Normal and Diseased (Multiple Sclerosis) Brain

Differences have been observed between myelin vesicles prepared from normal human central nervous system and from white matter of patients who died with multiple sclerosis (MS). The mean cross-sectional area of the vesicles was 5.69 +/- 0.17 micron 2 from normal myelin and 3.71 +/- 0.28 micron 2 for diseased myelin. Vesicle size was reduced to 4.08 +/- 0.21 micron 2 when normal myelin vesicles were prepared in the presence of 0.1 mM EDTA. The presence of Ca2+ during the preparation of the vesicles had no effect on the mean cross-sectional area. In the case of MS myelin vesicles, 0.1 mM EDTA had no effect on vesicle size, whereas the presence of Ca2+ increased the vesicle size from 3.71 +/- 0.28 to 5.40 +/- 0.31 micron 2. Electrokinetic analysis revealed that the electrophoretic mobility of normal myelin vesicles was -5.169 +/- 0.193 X 10(-8) compared with -6.093 +/- 0.202 X 10(-8) m2 s-1 V-1 for the MS myelin vesicles. The presence of 0.1 mM EDTA increased the electrophoretic mobility of the normal vesicles to -6.483 +/- 0.151 X 10(-8) m2 s-1 V-1 but did not significantly affect that of the MS vesicles. Addition of 0.1 mM Ca2+ decreased the electrophoretic mobility of both normal and MS vesicles to similar mobilities. From these data, the surface charge densities were calculated for both normal and MS myelin vesicles and found to be -2.93 and -5.39 mV m-1, respectively. The phase transition temperature determined by wide-angle x-ray diffraction studies was 63 degrees C for normal myelin vesicles and 43 degrees C for MS myelin vesicles.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)