Amino acid incorporation into neurons and glia of guinea pigs with experimental allergic encephalomyelitis.

After in vitro incubation of brain slices from guinea pigs in the intermediate (10 days postinduction) stage of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), incorporation of [14C]leucine into protein was increased in a glial-enriched fraction. By the late (17-18 days postinduction) stage of the disease, when EAE symptoms were manifest, both the neuronal- and glial-enriched fractions showed increased specific activity of their total protein. SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that the increased leucine incorporation occurred in those proteins which labeled in a control material. After intraperitoneal injection of [3H]leucine the incorporated radioactivity was slightly increased in unfractionated brains from EAE animals. The neuronal-glial ratios for protein-bound radioactivity indicated that the increased incorporation resided mainly in the glial population.