Neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis--late-infantile or Jansky-Bielschowsky type--revisited.

Among the now eight genetic types of neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinoses (NCL), CLN1 to CLN8, CLN2 is considered classic late-infantile NCL. It was originally described by Janský in a family of eight children with four of them affected [Janský J (1908) Sborn Lek 13:165-196] and, subsequently, by Bielschowsky in a family of three children each of whom was affected, and, hence, termed Janský-Bielschowsky type of NCL. Earlier, archival studies of Bielschowsky's original post-mortem tissue blocks had documented accumulation of autofluorescent lipopigments with a curvilinear ultrastructure. In a subsequent study, described here, immunohistochemical absence of the CLN2-related lysosomal enzyme tripept…