Characterization of an unknown amyloid fibril protein

Sammanfattning: Amyloidosis is a group of diseases where misfolded proteins aggregate in the body. These aggregates are called amyloid and today there are 37 different known amyloid proteins. Diagnosis of amyloidosis is done by Congo Red staining to find amyloid, and typing with immunohistochemistry together with mass spectrometry. An earlier study found an unknown amyloid fibril protein in the Ligamentum flavum of patients suffering from lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), and another study found specifically amyloid of the precursor protein ApoA-I in the same tissue of patients with LSS. The aim of this project is to type an unknown amyloid fibril protein through immunohistochemistry and mass spectrometry as well as isolating the ApoA-I protein to be able to do further tests on the protein. The unknown amyloid protein was not characterized in this study, but it gave indications on what it is not and how to continue the search in future studies.