The impact of glycolipids of non-mammalian origin on autoimmune inflammation has become widely recognized. Here we report that the naturally occurring mammalian glycolipids, sulfatide and β-GalCer, affect the differentiation and the quality of antigen presentation by monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs). In response to sulfatide and β-GalCer, monocytes develop into immature DCs with higher ex...

The kernels of Trichosanthes kirilowii seeds contain a green oil which makes up for 62% of their dry matter. This oil consists up to 95% of triglycerides, 2% of glycolipids, 1.3% of phospholipids and 1.8% of chlorophylls. As fatty acid components the triglycerides, glycolipids and phospholipids contain the unsaturated fatty acids linoleic and oleic acid and the saturated palmitic acid. In the t...

NKT cells, a unique type of regulatory T cells, respond to structurally diverse glycolipids presented by CD1d. Although it was previously thought that recognition of glycolipids such as α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) by the NKT cell TCR (NKTCR) obeys a key-lock principle, it is now clear this interaction is much more flexible. In this article, we report the structure-function analysis of a ser...

The carriers of the carbohydrate differentiation antigens I, i and SSEA-1 were investigated in embryonal carcinoma cell lines of mouse and differentiated cell lines derived from them. Glycoproteins were studied by immunostaining ('Western blotting') of total cell lysates and immunoprecipitation from lysates of galactose oxidase/NaB3H4-labelled cells; glycolipids were investigated by immunostain...

The immunogenicity of autologous tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) is markedly increased upon the intratumoral injection of α-gal glycolipids, which insert into tumor cell membranes. The binding of natural anti-Gal antibodies to these glycolipids activates the complement system and recruits antigen-presenting cells (APCs), which internalize anti-Gal-coated tumor cells upon Fc/FcγR interactions. ...

The quantitative isolation of total glycosphingolipids from crude lipid extracts without contamination from other lipid classes is described. The method consists of (a) acetylation of total lipids with pyridine and acetic anhydride, (b) separation of acetylated glycolipids from nonglycolipids on a magnesia-silica gel (Florisil) column, and (c) deacetylation of glycolipid in chloroform-methanol-...

The neutral and acidic glycolipids from the liver of an 1 1-year-old male were quantitatively isolated and characterized. The total concentration of gangliosides was also determined in samples from five other human livers. Lipid-bound sialic acid varied between 190-248 nmol/g with a mean value of 212 nmol/g. The major ganglioside was GM3, which represented 91.6% of the sialic acid. Besides GM3 ...

Figure 1: Membrane lipids are polar and can be separated into phospholipids and glycolipids, for which the basic structures are shown. Note the difference in the third binding site. Phospholipids have a phosphate bound to an alcohol (glycerol-) or choline (sphingo-), while glycolipids have a sugar group. Source: Lafer, Eileen. “Membrane Lipids I and II: Glycerophospholipids and Sphingolipids.” ...

The production by cancer cells of glycolipids, perhaps derived partly from host glycolipids, may play essential roles in malignancy, tumor growth, immunity from host immunodefense, and metastasis. The glycolipids are derived from the primary glycolipid, glucosylceramide (GlcCer), which is formed enzymatically from ceramide and uridine diphosphoglucose (UDP-glu). Injection of an inhibitor of thi...

The human glioma cell line D-54 MG and one of its single-cell-derived clones exhibit some properties of oligodendroglia, including surface antigens, enzymatic activity, and absence of markers for astrocytes. The glioma cells were further examined for glycolipids characteristic of oligodendroglia. The glioma cells had only about 2% of the total lipids as galactolipids while oligodendroglia have ...