Some normal clinical chemistry values for cerebrospinal fluid of the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta).

The concentrations of many components of the cerebrospinal fluid are much lower than in serum. Values for sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium are similar to those in other primates. Activities of alkaline phosphatase (18.7 U/1), creatine phosphokinase (9.9 U/1), glutamine oxaloacetate transaminase (13.7 U/1), glutamine pyruvate transaminase (9.2 U/1), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (3.1 U/1), alpha-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (33.0 U/1, lactate dehydrogenase (47.2 U/1) and sorbitol dehydrogenase (3.9 U/1), and levels of zinc (1.0 mu g/dl), copper (2.6 mu g/dl), iron (35.9 mu g/dl) and triglycerides (33.2 mu g/dl) have not previously been reported for this species. Values for free amino acids, total protein, creatinine and urea nitrogen are compared with those of other primates. The use of gradient pore polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for analysing proteins of CSF is described.