Thin-layer chromatography of gangliosides

Planar chromatographic techniques in biomedicine: current status

In planar chromatography (PLC), the solvent flows through a layer either by means of capillary forces [conventional thin-layer chromatography (TLC)] or by a forced-flow system (over-pressured layer chromatography). Phases and instrumentation currently available are briefly examined. The main applications in biomedicine are reviewed. Although silica gel TLC plates still predominate, interest in other phases is increasing. Unique detection features such as immunostaining are emphasized. Although gas chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography have superseded TLC in the analysis of carbohydrates, amino acids and indole derivatives, interest in PLC continues to be high in lipid analysis.

Developing rat cerebellum--III. Effects of abnormal thyroid states and undernutrition on gangliosides

Alteration of rat postnatal cerebellar development produced by undernutrition, thyroxine treatment and thyroid deficiency also involves ganglioside deposition. The distribution of the different ganglioside types is apparently unaffected but quantitative alterations are present that reflect the reduction of cell number and cell process surface in the adult, and either acceleration or slowing down or reduction of cell formation and maturation occurring during cerebellar development in the three experimental situations.

[Analysis of gangliosides with special reference to milk]

Gangliosides are sialic acid containing lipid compounds of a very complex nature, which are involved in many physiological processes. Gangliosides are very important constituents of membrane material in animal tissue, where they occur at very low concentrations. Improved analytical procedures are therefore required to study their behaviour, their role in living systems and their isolation for further investigations. In this paper, all analytical methods which may be important in the analysis of gangliosides are summarized and discussed. These include extraction, purification, enrichment and chromatographic procedures. In bovine milk, three gangliosides of known structure are present. Their isolation, structure and analytical importance (buttermilk) are also reported.

New solvent system for high-performance thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography of gangliosides

New solvent systems consisting of acetonitrile, isopropanol and aqueous 50 mM potassium chloride or 2.5 M ammonium hydroxide were developed for the separation of gangliosides by high-performance thin-layer chromatography. These solvent systems seem to be superior for the resolution of polysialogangliosides such as tetra-, penta- and hexasialo species, as compared to chloroform-methanol-aqueous salt systems. The order of mobility of gangliosides in the ammoniacal solvent system is GD3 greater than GD1a greater than GM1 greater than GT1b greater than GD1b as compared with GM1 greater than GD3, GD1a greater than GD1b greater than GT1b in the neutral septem. A combination of these two solvent systems provides excellent two-dimensional separations of complex ganglioside mixtures. The neutral solvent system, acetonitrile-isopropanol-aqueous 50 mM potassium chloride, can be used for the separation of underivatized gangliosides by high-performance liquid chromatography on an Aquasil SS silica gel column. Ganglioside elution can be monitored at 208 nm because of the good UV-transparency of the effluent.

Quantitation of the in vitro neuroblastoma response to exogenous, purified gangliosides

Individual ganglioside species (possessing the gangliotetrose oligosaccharide) were purified from bovine brain gray matter and applied in varying concentrations to the culture medium of mouse neuroblastoma cells (N2A) in vitro. After 48 hr of incubation, the cells were stained, and the neuritogenic response quantitated with a video analysis system, employing a program to measure three parameters of neuroblastoma differentiation: neurites per cell (sprouting), neurite length (extension), and degree of neurite branching (arborization). All the individual gangliosides tested promoted neurite extension in a dose-dependent fashion. Asialogangliosides ("neutral" glycosphingolipids) were without effect, which suggests that sialic acid (N-acetylneuraminic acid) is necessary to elicit this cellular response. With increasing concentrations of GM1 (5 to 500 micrograms/ml), the average cellular neurite length increased significantly, whereas the number of neurites per cell decreased. With the trisialoganglioside GT1b, neurite length did not increase to the extent seen with GM1, but an increase in the number of neurites per cell (sprouting) and branch points per neurite (arborization) was observed. These results suggest that the in vitro neuronal response to exogenous gangliosides may combine specific responses to individual species making up the total.

High-performance liquid chromatographic resolution of p-nitrobenzyloxyamine derivatives of brain gangliosides

A new quantitative procedure for the high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) resolution of human brain gangliosides employing reversed-phase chromatography is described. To provide a derivative which can be determined by UV absorption techniques, p-nitrobenzyloxyamine was coupled to the gangliosides. Derivatization involves ozonation and cleavage of the ceramide double bond followed by oxime formation to the nascent aldehyde. Individual gangliosides, as they were resolved by HPLC, were collected. These fractions were then identified by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and by gas chromatography of their monosaccharides. Quantitative results were obtained along with a marked increase in sensitivity over conventional resorcinol-hydrochloric acid quantitation of TLC-resolved gangliosides.

The organization of gangliosides and other lipid components in synaptosomal plasma membranes and modifying effects of calcium ion

Synaptosomes were prepared from bovine brain by zonal rotor sucrose density centrifugation. While a major fraction of lipid-bound sialic acid is included uniformly within the synaptosomal distribution profile, the sialoglycoproteins and some gangliosides do not follow this pattern. Exposure to extrasynaptosomal calcium results in alterations in the surface labeling properties of some gangliosides and membrane plasmalogens, suggesting that extrasynaptic Ca2+ may influence the conformation of complex lipids in synaptic plasma membranes. The level of intrinsic membrane-associated sialidase activity that liberates sialic acid from these sialoglycoconjugates parallels the synaptosomal buoyant density distribution profile, supporting a view that this enzyme resides in synaptosomal membranes in close association with a sialolipid substrate.

Brain gangliosides: an improved simple method for their extraction and identification

Total ganglioside extracts prepared from brain tissue were concentrated either by dialysis against Carbowax or by employing Millipore filter cones. Thin-layer chromatography was then carried out using silica gel plates. After location of the various fractions quantitation was effected by direct densitometry. The methods that have been adopted are rapid and suitable for the study of brain gangliosides in post mortem and biopsy material in a clinical chemistry laboratory.

The ganglioside content of the milk fat-globule membrane and the mouse mammary-tumour virus isolated from the milk of infected mice. Partial characterization of a new disialoganglioside

The milk fat-globule membrane and the mouse mammary-tumour virus isolated from the milk of infected Swiss mice have been investigated for their content in gangliosides. When compared on the lipid phosphorus basis, viral envelope is found to contain more than twice as much lipid-bound sialic acid as fat-globule membrane. The ganglioside patterns of these two structures appear rather similar, except for the occurrence in fat-globule membrane of a low ganglioside homolog, presumably GM2, not detected in viral envelope. A common and dominant trait is the presence in both structures, as the main ganglioside, of a component which has been so far characterized as a disialoganglioside, having the same neutral glycolipid moiety as GD1a, but with both sialic acid residues displayig to Clostridium perfringens and Vibrio cholerae neuraminidase, the susceptibility typical of terminal sialic acid residues.

Membrane lipids in bromodeoxyuridine-differentiated astroglial cells in culture

Embryonic hamster astroblasts (NN strain) grown in continuous line were cultivated in the presence of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). A decrease in the growth rate of the cells and striking changes in their morphology were observed, the morphology of the cells resembling that of mature astrocytes. Membrane lipids of BrdU-differentiated and standard cells were compared. No modification of the lipid/protein ratio was observed. Phospholipids and cholesterol were increased in the same proportions in the cells, and no modification of the phospholipid distribution was observed. Ganglioside sialic acid remained at the same level, but the ganglioside distribution was highly modified. Complex gangliosides appeared (GM1 and GD1a), while the proportion of simple gangliosides (GM3 and GD3) decreased. However, neither GT1 nor GQ1 were detected in differentiated cells. The distribution of phosphoglyceride acyl groups was highly modified, the proportion of arachidonic and docosapentaenoic acids being 2 to 3 times higher in BrdU-treated cells than in proliferating ones. These results were compared to those obtained with another clonal line of glial cells (C6) which exhibited no morphological differentiation in the presence of BrdU; the lipids of these cells were not modified by such a treatment.

Large-scale preparation of synaptosomes from bovine brain using a zonal rotor technique

A zonal rotor technique for the preparation of synaptosomes in bulk from bovine brain frontal cortex based on an impirical transformation of a small-volume discontinuous sucrose density gradient arrangement is presented in detail. The procedure yields new information concerning synaptosomes prepared in sucrose gradients. Cerebroside analysis and electron microscopy show myelin contamination to be restricted to the leading, less dense edge of the synaptosomal profile, free mitochondria to the trailing, more dense edge. Exclusion of fringe areas yields a highly purified synaptosome preparation which entirely enters the next dense layer beyond the 0.8 : 1.2 M sucrose interface. This interface collects most of the oubain-sensitive (Na+, K+) adenosine triphosphatase activity. The purified synaptosomes display very high intrinsic sialidase activity and are rich in di-, tri-, and tetrasialogangliosides, the preferred substrates for the enzyme. Up to 90% of the cholinesterase activity in the zonal rotor synaptosome preparation is specific acetylcholinesterase.