Purification of Neurofilaments and Their Interaction with Vinblastine Sulphate (original) (raw)

Abstract

Neurofilaments consisting almost exclusively of triplet polypeptides (with molecular weights of 200, 000, 160, 000 and 68, 000) were isolated from the rat peripheral nerve. A portion of the triplet polypeptides seems to exist in a non-polymeric form that is not sedimentable by high-speed centrifugation, and is undetectable by electron microscopy. In the presence of both neurofilaments and vinblastine sulphate, a white precipitate developed at 37°C, that rapidly redissolved at 4°C. Electron microscopy showed that the appearance of the neurofilaments did not alter during their interaction with vinblastine.