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Anti-myelin antibodies (AMA) of IgG, IgM, and IgA class were investigated by ELISA in CSF and serum from patients with meningopolyneuritis Garin-Bujadoux-Bannwarth (GBB), other inflammatory diseases of the nervous system (ID) comprising meningoencephalitis (ME), multiple sclerosis (MS), and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), and various noninflammatory neurological diseases (NID). Anti-Borrelia antibodies (ABA) were determined by ELISA in GBB patients. In CSF, a high incidence of IgG-AMA, IgM-AMA, and IgA-AMA was found in GBB as compared with ID and NID. On average, positive AMA titers were higher in GBB than in ID and NID, IgM-AMA titers in GBB being most prominent. In serum, AMA were found in all but 2 patients investigated. On average, IgM-AMA titers were higher in GBB and MS than in other diseases; IgG-AMA titers in GBB and ME were relatively low. Antibody indices, calculated from titer values and Ig concentrations in CSF and serum, indicate intrathecal synthesis mainly of IgG- and IgA-AMA, and of IgG- and IgM-ABA. Participation of AMA in the pathogenesis of GBB may be envisaged, but needs further confirmation.

Within a family refered here, two sisters are presenting heredopathia atactica polyneuritiformis (Morbus Refsum) with the complete clinical, electromyographical and serological findings (increased phytanic acid level, accumulation of mono- and diphytanyl, triglycerides). In addition, some symptoms of Refsum's disease are clinically apparent in the eight year old daughter of one of the patients, but significant principal characteristics are absent (dissociation of the spinal fluid, retinopathia pigmentosa, increased phytanic acid level). The phytanic acid level in the serum of ten clinically normal blood relations (three of which are also obligatory heterozygotes) is normal. In both patients with manifest illness we found not only the usual spinal fluid changes with highly increased protein levels (gammaglobulin, IgA- and IgG-fraction) but also a remarkably large number of macrophages with vacuoles. Within almost two years of keeping to a strict diet with low phytanic acid and phytol content, both patients showed a distinct clinical improvement in parallel with a decrease of the phytanic acid level. Even a temporary increase of the phytanic acid level in one of the patients did not cause clinical relapse. Regarding the biochemical control of the course of the disease, the phytanic acid containing triglycerides proved to be a highly sensitive parameter.

The sequence of reactions involved in plasmalogen biosynthesis has been evaluated in cultured fibroblasts of patients with the cerebrohepatorenal syndrome. A double-label, double-substrate incubation using [1-14C] hexadecanol and 1-0-[9', 10'-3H]hexadecylglycerol was performed to monitor the relative rates of peroxisomal and microsomal biosynthesic steps. [14C] radioactivity associated with 1'-alkenyl groups of plasmalogens was found to be drastically reduced in fibroblasts of affected patients whereas [3H] incorporation was apparently normal. This finding is specific for cerebrohepatorenal syndrome fibroblasts since cell lines of patients with childhood adrenoleukodystrophy and neuronal ceroidlipofuscinosis utilized the lipid precursors of plasmalogen biosynthesis at normal rates. The results show that the defect in plasmalogen synthesis in the cerebro-hepato-renal syndrome is restricted to the peroxisomal steps. The finding of normal microsomal biosynthetic steps was exploited to devise a novel diagnostic assay in fibroblasts and amniocytes based on the comparison of [3H/14C] isotope ratios within aldehydes released from plasmalogens by acid hydrolysis. The procedure can be completed with a minimal amount of cells since it renders quantitative analyses unnecessary. Therefore, this technique appears ideally suited for the sensitive and safe prenatal diagnosis of the cerebro-hepato-renal syndrome.

Very long chain fatty acids were investigated by gas chromatography in fibroblasts of patients with genetic peroxisomal diseases (cerebro-hepato-renal (Zellweger) syndrome, childhood adrenoleukodystrophy, adrenomyeloneuropathy, neonatal adrenoleukodystrophy) and of controls. Concentrations of C 26:0 were increased to about the same extent in all disorders investigated. C 26:1 concentrations, on the other hand, were considerably elevated only in the cerebro-hepato-renal syndrome. In all control, adrenoleukodystrophy, and adrenomyeloneuropathy cases the C 22:0 concentration was higher than the respective C 26:0 concentration; the reverse was found in the cerebro-hepato-renal syndrome. These differences seem to reflect different impairment of peroxisomes in the cerebro-hepato-renal syndrome and adrenoleukodystrophy variants, respectively. Additional experiments to characterize C 26:1 by thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry revealed the presence of two straight-chain C 26:1 isomers with similar fragmentation patterns.

Pneumococci manifesting binary capsulation have been produced through the agency of transformation reactions. Such cells produce two capsular polysaccharides which are closely similar if not identical with those produced by corresponding singly capsulated strains. Binary capsulation in pneumococcus provides a new basis for serologic cross-reactivity in this species.

A method is described for estimating quantitatively the frequency of transformation of pneumococci to new capsular types. It is found that, when S-(III) cells are exposed to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from wild-type I strains, transformation to SI occurs at a frequency 20 to 60 times that of transformation to the binary type SI-III. SI markers on DNA isolated from binary strains behave qualitatively and quantitatively in a different manner from the same markers on DNA from wild-type I strains and will transform S-(III) cells only to SI-III. Strains are described which produce only one capsular polysaccharide, but which are genetically binary and carry a second capsular genome with a mutated gene so that the second polysaccharide is not produced. Stability and other characteristics of binary strains are discussed, and one hypothesis for the genetic organization of binary strains is presented.

Capsulated mutants of pneumococcus producing a capsule of soluble polysaccharide related immunologically to the C or cell wall polysaccharide of pneumococcus have been isolated from several noncapsulated variants of this organism. The capsular material of these strains reacts with antisera both to homologous strains and to noncapsulated strains of pneumococcus and with human C-reactive protein. C-reactive protein has been shown to give a positive capsular precipitin or Quellung reaction with C(s) pneumococcal variants and to agglutinate them. The genetic locus which determines the production of C(s) polysaccharide is situated in a region of the pneumococcal chromosome distinct from that controlling normal capsular polysaccharide synthesis. Binary and ternary capsulated pneumococci, one of the capsular components of which is C(s) polysaccharide, have been isolated following DNA-mediated transformation.

Study of the capsular genome of pneumococcus has shown that it controls a multiplicity of biochemical reactions essential to the synthesis of capsular polysaccharide. Mutation affecting any one of several biochemical reactions concerned with capsular synthesis may result in loss of capsulation without alteration of other biochemical functions similarly concerned. Mutations affecting the synthesis of uronic acids are an important cause of loss of capsulation and of virulence by strains of pneumococcus Type I and Type III. The capsular genome appears to have a specific location in the total genome of the cell, this locus being occupied by the capsular genome of whatever capsular type is expressed by the cell. Transformation of capsulated or of non-capsulated pneumococci to heterologous capsular type results probably from a genetic exchange followed by the development of a new biosynthetic pathway in the transformed cell. The new capsular genome is transferred to the transformed cell as a single particle of DNA. Binary capsulation results from the simultaneous presence within the pneumococcal cell of two capsular genomes, one mutated, the other normal. Interaction between the biochemical pathways controlled by the two capsular genomes leads to augmentation of the phenotypic expression of the product controlled by one and to partial suppression of the product determined by the other. Knowledge of the biochemical basis of binary capsulation can be used to indicate the presence of uronic acid in the capsular polysaccharide of a pneurnococcal type the composition of the capsule of which is unknown.

The genetic behavior in transformation reactions of 20 noncapsulated mutants of pneumococcus type III suggests that each has a single-site mutation in the locus controlling the synthesis of uridine diphosphate glucose (UDPG) dehydrogenase. Each strain is capable of yielding transformants of the binary capsular type SI-III when exposed to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from type I cells. One additional mutant reacted differently and behaved as if it were a multisite mutant with the mutation affecting both the locus for UDPG dehydrogenase and that controlling the synthesis of high molecular weight type III capsular polysaccharide. When exposed to DNA from type I pneumococci, this strain yielded transformants which were genotypically binary but which expressed only the type I capsular phenotype.

Through transformation reactions, binary capsulated SI-III strains of pneumococci have been isolated that are unstable and lose the SI capsular genome at high frequency. The instability is caused by the specific mutation in the SIII capsular genome common to all of the unstable strains. In the family of strains studied, the SI capsular genome was integrated into the recipient chromosome in at least two loci: one apparently adjacent to the resident capsular genome and a second some distance from it. A hypothesis is presented to explain the instability of the strains on the basis of redundancy of genetic information.