The authors made in a group of deceased subjects with craniocerebral injuries and subjects with protracted hypoxia without mechanical brain injury immunohistochemical investigations of neuron-specific enolase and beta-amyloid protein precursor. Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) is produced by nerve cells and is a suitable marker of neuron as well as axon damage. While the bodies of intact nerve cells display immunoreactivity with the anti-NSE antibody, in damaged neurons already within two hours after injury a marked drop of this protein substance was observed after mechanical injury as well as after protracted hypoxia. In axons altered by injury the authors observed the presence of NSE already within several tens of minutes after injury while hypoxia of the brain without mechanical injury did not produce any or only a very weak reaction of axons on examination with anti-NSE without a topographic link to the axonal lesion. Beta-amyloid protein precursor (beta-APP) is a low molecular protein the normal values of which are not detectable in axons by standard immunochemistry. In axons altered by injury the authors observed an increased incidence of this protein substance while in cerebral hypoxia without mechanical injury of the CNS only in rare instances a positive reaction with anti-beta-APP antibody was found.

        Key words: immunohistochemistry - neuron-specific enolase - beta-amyloid protein precursor - diffuse axonal injury - hypoxia