Open AccessCharacterization of a Novel Brain Neutral Glycosphingolipid Composition in House Musk Shrew ( Suncus Murinus )
Author(s) -
Watanabe Kiyohiro,
Nishiyama Masako
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
european journal of biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1432-1033
pISSN - 0014-2956
DOI - 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1995.tb20644.x
Subject(s) - glycosphingolipid , suncus , sphingomyelin , ganglioside , chromatography , glycolipid , chemistry , biochemistry , cerebrum , ceramide , fucosylation , column chromatography , shrew , sephadex , fatty acid , biology , fucose , galactose , endocrinology , cholesterol , apoptosis , ecology , enzyme , central nervous system
Glycosphingolipids were extracted from the brain of house musk shrew (Suncus murinus). Neutral glycosphingolipids were purified by QAE‐Sephadex column chromatography followed by high‐perfor‐mance liquid chromatography using an Iatrobeads column. Purified glycosphingolipids were identified by high‐performance thin‐layer chromatography, carbohydrate analysis, fast‐atom bombardment mass spectrometry and TLC immunostaining. The ganglioside pattern was almost the same as the pattern obtained for rat brain gangliosides. The brain of S. murinus, however, was unique in its neutral glyco‐sphingolipid composition; it contained gangliotriaosylceramide and gangliotetraosylceramide as the major neutral glycosphingolipids in addition to monohexosylceramides. Mass spectroscopy analysis showed that C18: 1 sphingosine and C24:O normal fatty acids were the major ceramide constituents in the glycosphin‐golipis, except in the case where a slower‐migrating monohexosylceramide that contained C24 h: 0 hy‐droxy fatty acids was observed. A day after birth, monohexosylceramide contained only normal fatty acids. The amounts of hydroxy‐fatty‐acid‐containing monohexosylceramide increased rapidly as the age of the animals increased, and the ratio of these two kinds of monohexosylceramides was reversed within five weeks. Monohexosylceramide, ganglioside, and sulfatide contents in bulbus olfactorius were almost equal in amount in contrast to the glycolipids in the cerebrum and cerebellum that contained monohexosylceramide as the major constituent. The amount of monohexosylceramide in the bulbus olfactorius was 0.3–0.4 times the values obtained for the of cerebrum and cerebellum.