Tegument galactosylceramides of the cestode Spirometra mansonoides

• Published in: Molecular and biochemical parasitology Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 99 - 111
• Main Authors: Singh, Bibhuti N., Costello, Catherine E., Levery, Steven B., Walenga, Ronald W., Beach, David H., Mueller, Justus F., Holz, George G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier B.V 01.11.1987; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: 2-Hydroxy fatty acid; Animals; Applied sciences; Cerebrosides - analysis; Cestoda - analysis; Cestode; Chemical Phenomena; Chemistry; Chromatography, Gas; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Chromatography, Thin Layer; Dihydrosphingosine; Exact sciences and technology; Galactosylceramide; Galactosylceramides - analysis; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; integument; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Other techniques and industries; Phytosphingosine; Spirometra; Spirometra - analysis; Spirometra mansonoides; Tegument; Tegument; 2-Hydroxy fatty acid; GC/MS, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry; FD, field desorption; HPTLC, high performance thin-layer chromatography; TMS, trimethylsilyl; Cestode; C/M, chloroform/methanol; FAB, fast atom bombardment; Phytosphingosine; Dihydrosphingosine; GLC, gas-liquid chromatography; Spirometra; CID, collisionally; Galactosylceramide
• ISSN: 0166-6851; 1872-9428
• DOI: 10.1016/0166-6851(87)90134-4

The brush border-like surface of the tegument of the adult and the plerocercoid larva of a pseudophyllidean cestode, Spirometra mansonoides, has been shown to contain hydroxylated galactosylceramides. d- Galactosyl-N-(2- d- hydroxyoctadecanoyl)- d- phytos-phingosine , d- galactosyl-N-(2- d- hydroxyoctadecanoyl)- d- dihydrosphingosine and d- galactosyl-N- ( octadecanoyl)- d- phytosphingosine were identified as major glycosphingolipids in a tegumental plasma membrane fraction with associated microtriches, by combinations of chromatography (column, high performance thin-layer, gas-liquid), mass spectrometry (electron impact, field desorption, fast atom bombardment, collisionally induced decomposition) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry. Galactosyl-ceramides with hydroxylated long chain bases and fatty acids are known to occur in some eukaryotic microbes and in cells of vertebrate tissues exposed to plasma membrane destabilizing environments. This has led to a proposal that the capacity of hydroxylated ceramide moieties for intermolecular hydrogen bonding among themselves and with phosphoglycerides acts to stabilize the plasma membrane. Saturated fatty acyl groups in the ceramides would enhance stabilization by their orderly packing in the lipid bilayer. Consequently, the presence of such hydroxylated galactosylceramides in the tegument surface of S. mansonoides may contribute to the maintenance of its normal barrier properties in the face of the varied environmental insults encountered by the cestode in its life-cycle.