Figure 4.

(a) Representative SDS-PAGE analyses of RBC ghosts (silver staining) in a healthy control subject (lane C⁻), a positive control subject (see text for definition; lane C⁺), and two autistic patients (lanes A₁ and A₂): visible reduction of intensity for β-actin in autistic patients (lanes A₁ and A₂) is evidenced; the electrophoretic position of bands 4.1 and 4.2 is indicated by arrowheads; (b) SDS-PAGE of immunoprecipitated β-actin (silver staining) from RBC ghosts of a healthy control subject (lane C⁻), a positive control individual (lane C⁺), and an autistic patient (lane A): visible reduction of intensity for β-actin in autistic patients (lane A); (c) immunochemical detection in the 4-HNE protein adducts in RBC ghosts: representative western blot from a healthy control subject (lane C⁻), a positive control individual (lane C⁺) and from an autistic patients (lanes A₁ and A₂). An increase in the 4-HNE PAs signal is evident in RBC ghosts from autistic patients (lanes A₁ and A₂), in particular as it concerns the β-actin band; the 4-HNE binding to bands 4.1 and 4.2 is indicated by arrowheads; and (d) immunochemical detection in the 4-HNE protein adducts in immunoprecipitated β-actin from RBC ghosts: representative western blot from a healthy control subject (lane C⁻), positive control individual (lane C⁺), and from an autistic patient (lane A): a visible increase in the 4-HNE PAs signal in β-actin from autistic patient (lane A) is evident. Molecular weight marks are indicated on the right side.