Isolation and structural characterization of human lymphocyte neutral glycosphingolipids.

The neutral glycosphingolipids of human peripheral blood lymphocytes and of the lymphoid cells from a patient with B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia were chemically analyzed. Four neutral glycosphingolipids were chemically analyzed. Four neutral glycosphingolipids were isolated from each of these two sources and studied by gas chromatography, methylation analysis, and electron impact--desorption mass spectrometry. The results of these studies indicate that the compounds have the following structures: Glc1 leads to 1Cer Gal1 leads to 4Glc1 leads to 1Cer Gal1 leads to 4Gal1 leads to 4Glc1 leads to 1Cer GalNAc1 leads to 3Gal1 leads to 4Gal1 leads to 4Glc1 leads to 1Cer These compounds, belonging to the globo series, were the only neutral glycosphingolipids found in the lymphoid cells. The ceramide (Cer) moiety of all these compounds contained 4-sphingenine with C16:0, C24:0, and C24:1 as the major fatty acid species. There were no structural differences in the neutral glycosphingolipids of peripheral blood lymphocytes compared to those of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells. Peripheral blood lymphocytes contained more di- than monohexosylceramide whereas the reverse was true of the chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells. The proportion of tri- and tetrahexosylceramide was less than 10% for both types of cells. The results of our analyses did not support the existence of any differences in the major neutral glycosphingolipids among T, B, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells.