Neural cell adhesion molecule--description of a CSF ELISA method and evidence of reduced levels in selected neurological disorders.

Neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) is important for neuronal growth and repair. Here we describe the development and validation of a sensitive ELISA for NCAM using commercially available reagents. The measurable range of NCAM ELISA is 16-500 ng/mL, with a constant coefficient-of variation and good parallelism between the reference standard curve and CSF. CSF NCAM was measured in 36 benign-intracranial hypertension, 51 multiple sclerosis, 27 neuropathy, 37 Alzheimer's disease, 12 cognitive impairment, 15 motoneurone disease, 13 meningitis, 17 encephalitis, and 17 control cases. Significant reductions were found between controls and multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and meningitis.