Davidson T J, Hartmann H A
J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 1981 Mar;40(2):193-8. doi: 10.1097/00005072-198103000-00010.
The base composition of RNA obtained from the large motor neurons of the cervical and lumbar swelling was examined in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients and a similar number of age-matched controls. Spinal cords were obtained at autopsy and immediately fixed in buffered formalin. The single cell technique of Edström was employed to extract, hydrolyze, and electrophoresis the RNA. The base composition obtained for the controls was 17.47% adenine, 28.88% guanine, 28.50% cytidylic acid, and 25.14% uridylic acid. The cervical intumescence revealed higher levels of uridylic acid than the lumbar, 27.23% in the cervical and 23.31% in the lumbar intumescence. The motor neuron cell bodies isolated from patients having had ALS revealed a lower percentage of adenine in both the cervical (13%) and lumbar (10%) intumescences. When the data for these areas were combined, the percentage of adenine was 15.52, compared to 17.47% in the controls (p less than 0.01). The A/U ratio was also significantly reduced in the ALS group. The composition of the remaining bases in ALS appeared to be similar to the controls. The significant change in adenine, coupled with the quantitative reduction in total neuronal RNA, suggests that a disorder of nucleic acid metabolism may relate to the pathogenesis of ALS.
对肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS）患者以及数量相近的年龄匹配对照组，检测了从颈膨大及腰膨大的大型运动神经元获取的RNA的碱基组成。在尸检时获取脊髓，并立即固定于缓冲福尔马林中。采用埃德斯特伦的单细胞技术提取、水解并电泳RNA。对照组获得的碱基组成为：腺嘌呤17.47%、鸟嘌呤28.88%、胞嘧啶28.50%、尿嘧啶25.14%。颈膨大的尿嘧啶水平高于腰膨大，颈膨大处为27.23%，腰膨大处为23.31%。从患有ALS的患者分离出的运动神经元胞体，在颈膨大（13%）和腰膨大（10%）处的腺嘌呤百分比均较低。当将这些区域的数据合并时，腺嘌呤百分比为15.52，而对照组为17.47%（p小于0.01）。ALS组的A/U比值也显著降低。ALS中其余碱基的组成似乎与对照组相似。腺嘌呤的显著变化，再加上神经元总RNA的定量减少，表明核酸代谢紊乱可能与ALS的发病机制有关。
