Synthesis of non-hydroxy-galactosylceramides and galactosyldiglycerides by hydroxy-ceramide galactosyltransferase
Galactosylceramide (GalCer) is the major glycolipid in brain. In order to characterize the activity of brain UDPgalactose: ceramide galactosyltransferase (CGalT), it has been stably expressed in CGalT-negative Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. After fractionation of transfected cells, CHO-CGT, on s...
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Published in | Biochemical journal Vol. 317 ( Pt 2); no. 2; pp. 589 - 597 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
15.07.1996
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Galactosylceramide (GalCer) is the major glycolipid in brain. In order to characterize the activity of brain UDPgalactose: ceramide galactosyltransferase (CGalT), it has been stably expressed in CGalT-negative Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. After fractionation of transfected cells, CHO-CGT, on sucrose gradients, the activity resides at the density of endoplasmic reticulum and not of Golgi. A lipid chromatogram from CHO-CGT cells revealed two new iodine-staining spots identified as GalCer, since they comigrate with GalCer standards, can be metabolically labelled with [3H]galactose, are recognized by anti-GalCer antibodies, and are resistant to alkaline hydrolysis. A third [3H]galactose lipid was identified as galactosyldiglyceride. In the homogenate CGalT displays a 25-fold preference for hydroxy fatty acid-containing ceramides. Remarkably, endogenous GalCer of transfected cells contains exclusively non-hydroxy fatty acids: fast atom bombardment and collision-induced dissociation mass spectrometric analysis revealed mainly C16:0 in the lower GalCer band on TLC and mainly C22:0 and C24:0 in the upper band. Our results suggest that CGalT galactosylates both hydroxy- and non-hydroxy fatty acid-containing ceramides and diglycerides, depending on their local availability. Thus, CGalT alone may be responsible for the synthesis of hydroxy- and non-hydroxy-GalCer, and galactosyldiglyceride in myelin. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0264-6021 1470-8728 |
DOI: | 10.1042/bj3170589 |