Electrophoretic Studies of Intact Nuclei Isolated from Mammalian Brain. II: Electrokinetic characteristics following treatment and comparison of glial and neuronal nuclei

1) The electrokinetic properties of glial nuclei-enriched and neuronal nuclei-enriched fractions isolated from rabbit brain are studied and compared with those of rat cerebral cortex nuclei. While both fractions exhibit behaviour similar to that of rat cerebral cortex nuclei, the peak velocity in an electrophoretic field of the rabbit nuclei is higher than that of the rat cerebral cortex nuclei. In addition, the velocity of the glial nuclei is found to be significantly higher than that of the neuronal nuclei.2) Treatment with DNAase of intact nuclei isolated from rat cerebral cortex results in a large decrease in the velocity of nuclear migration and a heterogeneity of the population distribution, while similar treatment with pancreatic RNAase has little effect. Increased time of incubation with RNAase results in a decrease of the observed velocity. Treatment of the nuclei with a combination of DNAase and RNAase results in a loss of nuclear morphology and a very large decrease in electrophoretic mobility....