Glycosphingolipids in cestodes. Chemical structures of ceramide monosaccharide, disaccharide, trisaccharide and tetrasaccharide from metacestodes of the fox tapeworm, Taenia crassiceps (Cestoda: Cyclophyllidea).

The presence of glycosphingolipids in the metacestodes of the fox tapeworm, Taenia crassiceps, has been established. The normal-phase TLC pattern of the neutral-fraction glycolipids revealed groups of bands corresponding to homologous components of increasing sugar chain length. The three simplest glycolipid components have been isolated and their chemical constitution determined as being of the neogala series: Gal beta 1Cer, Gal beta 6Gal beta 1Cer and Gal beta 6Gal beta 6Gal beta 1Cer. The ceramide tetrasaccharide fraction has been found to consist of a mixture of neogalatetraosylceramide, as an elongation of the neogala series, Gal beta 6Gal beta 6Gal beta 6Gal beta 1Cer and the component Gal alpha 4Gal beta 6Gal beta 6Gal beta 1Cer (both occurring in approximately equimolar proportions). The long-chain bases of the ceramide monogalactoside, digalactoside, trigalactoside and tetragalactosides contain, as well as small amounts of sphingosine, predominantly dihydrosphingosine/phytosphingosine in the approximate ratios 1.7:1, 1.4:1, 1:1 and 2.3:1, respectively. The major ceramide fatty acids have particularly long chains, with hexacosanoic and octacosanoic acids predominating. Upon reverse-phase TCL, the glycolipid components ceramide monogalactoside, digalactoside and trigalactoside were each separable into five component bands. Parent glycolipid components therefore show component band distributions comparable to one another in being governed by similar ceramide constitutions.