Neutral glycolipid composition of primary human brain tumors

Abstract

Neutral glycolipids (NGL) were isolated and quantitated in 98 primary human brain tumors; 19 low grade astrocytomas (LGA), 12 anaplastic astrocytomas (AA), 37 high grade astrocytomas (HGA), 18 oligodendroglial tumors, and 12 primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET). In 38 of these, the nature of the hexose in the cerebroside was determined using immunothin-layer chromatographic techniques. Galactosylceramide (GalCer) was the major ceramide monohexoside (CMH), and glucosylcerebroside never comprised more than 6% of this fraction in any tumor type. Furthermore, there was no correlation between the proportion of glucosylcerebroside and histological diagnosis. AA had the most characteristic neutral glycolipid pattern, with high levels of total lipid, total neutral glycolipid, CMH, and ceramide dihexoside (CDH) but low water contents. Consistent with this glycolipid composition is the finding that AA usually had neither ceramide trihexoside (CTH) nor globoside. Oligodendrogliomas were somewhat similar to AA in having high levels of CMH and infrequently having CTH or globoside. However, oligodendrogliomas had low water and total lipid contents. PNET had low levels of total lipid, total NGL, and CMH, but frequently contained CTH and globoside. LGA had high water contents but low levels of total lipid and CMH. HGA tended to have intermediate levels of almost all constituents analyzed, probably reflecting the pronounced cellular heterogeneity of these tumors. The frequent presence of GalCer in astrocytomas raises the possibility that some of these contain a population of cells that are related to the oligodendroglial lineage. However, the low amounts of GalCer and infrequent presence of sulfatide in PNET is consistent with their lack of differentiation toward oligodendrocytes. It will be of interest to determine if the neutral glycolipid patterns reported here will correlate with patient survival and be of prognostic significance.

Lipid composition and phospholipid asymmetry of membranes from a Schwann cell line

“…The higher PC/PE ratio in NF1T cells compared to that in PNS myelin may indicate changes in membrane fluidity associated with malignancy (Schroeder, 1980). The lower content of cerebrosides and sulfatides compared to CNS myelin (Kirschner et al, 1989) may be related to the lack of differentiation and to the tumorigenic character of the NF1T cells (Chen et al, 1989;Sinagh et al, 1994). 0.37 6 0.03 24.6 6 1.4 10.0 6 0.7 15.0 6 1.1 PI 0.33 6 0.02 12.5 6 0.5 8.6 6 0.5 31.1 6 2.1 PS 0.014 6 0.001 3.9 6 0.2 9.8 6 0.55 3.6 6 0.15 *A 5 % of each phospholipid (with respect to the total content of its own class in the plasma membrane) at the outer leaflet of the PM, and was calculated with the following computational procedure: A 5 (H 3 100/a) (100/b), where H 5 % of phospholipid class degraded in non-lytic conditions with respect to total cellular phospholipids (data taken from Figure 3); a 5 % phospholipid class with respect to total cellular phospholipid (data taken from Table II, column 1); b 5 % PM phospholipid class with respect to total cellular phospholipid.…”

Genetic aberrations in glioblastoma multiforme: translocation of chromosome 10 in an O-2A-like cell line

“…However, reports that such tumors frequently express sulfatide and/or GalC (Jennemann et al, 1990;Singh et al 1994), and that some glioma-derived cell lines can be induced to express GalC or mRNA for proteolipid protein (Gillaspy et al, 1993;Kashima et al, 1993), are consistent with the view that the Hu-O-2A/Gb1 cell line is not a unique example of an O-2A tumour.…”

Patterns of reactivity with anti‐glycolipid antibodies in human primary brain tumors

“…0 1 is a reliable indicator of surface galactosylcerebroside (Bansal et a]., 1989), but 0 1 also reacts with an unidentified antigen in rat brain extracts . In view of this it is important to note that we have found considerable amounts of chemically characterized galactosylcerebroside in human primary brain tumors (Singh et al, 1991(Singh et al, , 1994. It might be thought that some of this could be in residual myelin of brain infiltrated by the tumor.…”

“…In a recent biochemical study we found that there were considerable amounts of galactosylcerebroside, sulfatide, and other neutral glycolipids in several types of primary human brain tumors (Singh et al, 1994). It was interpreted that these glycolipids were an integral component of the tumor cells.…”