Effects of cell density on the neutral glycolipid composition of cultured human brain and glioma cells.

Density dependent chain elongation of neutral glycosphingolipids (NGSL) is associated with contact inhibition of mitosis in several normal cultured cell lines. Transformed non-neural cell lines which have impaired contact inhibition frequently lose this biochemical response. To determine if either of these phenomena occur in human neural cells we determined NGSL compositions of cultured glioblastoma multiforme and normal fetal brain cells. Fetal cells generally had more total NGSL than the tumor cells. As a percentage of total NGSL, both cell lines at higher cell densities had larger proportions of ceramide trihexoside and globoside, but smaller proportions of cerebroside. This decrease was mainly in non-hydroxy fatty acid cerebroside of glioma cells, but in hydroxy fatty acid cerebroside of normal fetal brain cells. These results demonstrate that although glioblastoma multiforme cells have markedly impaired growth control, they still preserve density dependent chain elongation of NGSL. A role for this phenomenon in normal cellular growth control has yet to be established.