Electrophoresis of normal lumbar cerebrospinal fluid proteins in the African.

Lumbar cerebrospinal fluid obtained from Zambian patients suspected of suffering from central nervous system conditions was concentrated over a hundred-fold and subjected to small-scale cellulose acetate electrophoresis (Millipore). The percentage of each protein fraction was determined by scanning. Only twenty samples were considered normal out of a total of 150 studies. These normal values were not statistically different from those of published data on Europeans and North American Caucasians. The high serum gamma globulin in African subjects is not reflected in the cerebrospinal fluid.