Neuron-specific enolase in cerebrospinal fluid: a possible indicator of neuronal damage in kainic acid lesions.

The presence of the neuron specific enolase (NSE) has been tested by sandwich enzyme immunoassay in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of rats after intrastriatal injection of various amounts of kainic acid (KA). Incremental release of NSE was observed in CSF for increasing concentrations of injected KA. Still, a significant decrease of NSE striatal content was detected only with the two maximal amounts of KA infused. These data indicate that measurements of NSE in CSF might be a more sensitive index of neuronal damage than the actual assay within the tissue, and also present the advantage of being a non-invasive method of investigation.