With the thought that metabolic disturbances nuclear to the schizophrenic process might best be studied in the central nervous system itself, the attention of this laboratory has been directed to certain little-known chemical constituents of the brain and cerebrospinal fluid.1-7 The presence of neuraminic acid as a normal constituent of the macromolecular brain gangliosides suggested that its study in cerebrospinal fluid might afford a ready and repeatable source of pertinent information.
The mean neuraminic acid content of cerebrospinal fluid in schizophrenic patients is here shown to be considerably below that of nonschizophrenic adults and comparable only to values found in some children under 7 years of age.7 The present report describes the preparation of neuraminic acid standard from bovine brain ganglioside, the detailed procedure for the estimation of neuraminic acid in cerebrospinal fluid, and the values found in what is now a total of 195 subjects. A later