engleski

Expresion of major gangliosides in developing mouse brain

Gangliosides are constituents of the outer membrane leaflet that consist of a ceramide anchor and an oligosaccharide chain. In extraneuronal tissues they are only a minor fraction of lipids. However, neuronal tissues have ten-times higher concentrations of gangliosides, and there they are also a major source of O-linked oligosaccharides. Development of brain structures is accompanied with dramatic changes in pattern and variety of gangliosides. The importance of their physiological roles is even more convincingly demonstrated by disturbances caused by the failure of ganglioside degradation or the immunological impairments with specific antibodies. Nevertheless, their functions are still conspicuous with numerous theories placing them in adhesion molecules, receptors, signaling cascade, cell cycle and apoptotic death. Further studies of ganglioside function is complicated by lack of specific tools, primarily monoclonal antibodies. Gangliosides are weak antigen and the immunological response usually ends with IgM of low specificity. Recent development of knock-out mice for GM2 synthase that are immunologically naďve for complex gangliosides enabled us to produce IgG antibodies of high specificity. Using these antibodies we were for the first time able to demonstrate appearance of developmental changes for GM1, Gd1a, Gd1b and GT1b on different brain structures showing their specificity for neuronal subpopulations and different fiber system.

gangliosides; development

nije evidentirano