Deposition of detergent-resistant neurofilaments into Lewy body fibrils.

To assess the contribution of neurofilaments (NF) to the detergent-resistant cortical Lewy body (LB) fibril we extracted LBs from Diffuse LB diseased brains and used monoclonal antibodies to probe Western transfers of solubilized LB-derived protein. Antibodies to epitopes located in the COOH-termini of the 200- and 170-kDa NF subunits (NF-H and NF-M) labelled LB proteins corresponding to full length and partially truncated or variably phosphorylated NF-H and NF-M. LB-derived protein at approximately 70-kDa did not contain epitopes detected by monoclonal antibodies to NF-L, tau or the COOH-termini of the NF-H and NF-M. We conclude that NF-H and NF-M are incorporated as integral insoluble components of the cortical LB fibril.