Glycosphingolipids are ubiquitous membrane constituents that are subdivided in neutral or acidic fractions (gangliosides and sulfatides). Their analysis requires extraction and separation by thin-layer chromatography or high-performance liquid chromatography. Ganglioside composition changes occur in response to variations in cellular morphology and function. Glycosphingolipids are implicated in...

Initial events of T-cell activation involve movement of the T-cell receptor into lipid rafts. Gangliosides are major components of lipid rafts. While investigating T-cell activation in ganglioside-deficient mice, we observed that CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells required different ganglioside subsets for activation. Activation of CD4(+) T cells from GM3 synthase-null mice, deficient in GM3-derived gan...

A hematoside-type ganglioside, LLG-1 (1), has been obtained from the polar lipid fraction of the chloroform/methanol extract of the starfish Linckia laevigata. The structure of the ganglioside has been determined on the basis of chemical and spectroscopic evidence as 1-O-[N-glycolyl-alpha-D-neuraminosyl-(2-->3)-beta-D-galactopyranosyl-(1-->4)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-ceramide. The ceramide moiety...

A new human T cell subset defined by antineuronal ganglioside mAb 3G5 increases linearly with advancing age in man. The percentage of circulating 3G5+ T cells in 21 normal individuals, quantitated by cytofluorograph analysis, increases linearly from age 7 (23-30%) to age 84 (58%) (r = 0.85, p less than 0.001). The antigen on T cells has the biochemical properties of a ganglioside that migrates ...

We tested patients with celiac disease (CD) for the presence of serum anti-ganglioside antibodies. Six of twenty-seven patient sera were reactive against brain gangliosides by an agglutination immunoassay. Neurological examination in all six revealed the presence of distal sensory loss, consistent with the diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy. When tested by ELISA for antibodies to isolated GM1, ...

Tetanus toxin, a member of the family of Clostridial neurotoxins, is one of the most potent toxins known. The crystal structure of the complex of the COOH-terminal fragment of the heavy chain with an analogue of its ganglioside receptor, GT1b, provides the first direct identification and characterization of the ganglioside-binding sites. The ganglioside induces cross-linking by binding to two d...

Gangliosides of human kidney have been isolated and partially characterized [ 11. One of these gangliosides contained fucose, galactose, glucose, N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylneuraminic acid in the molar ratio of 1:2: 1: 1: 1 respectively. It was homogeneous on thin-layer chromatography and it was therefore proposed that this ganglioside represents a new type of glycolipid structure with neu...

Gangliosides were isolated from whole spinal cords and cord myelin of human, cat, and rabbit by a revised methodology. The method included the sequential application of DEAE-Sephadex column chromatography, base treatment, Sephadex G-50 column chromatography, and finally Iatrobeads column chromatography. The human whole spinal cord was found to contain about one-tenth of the ganglioside concentr...