Glycosphingolipids of rabbit, sheep, and pig thymus.

The thymus plays a major role in the immune system and many of the processes that occur in this tissue depend on cell-cell interactions. Glycoconjugates are known to mediate cell-cell interactions and thus to understand more fully the function of this class of compounds in thymus, structural characterization and quantification of the glycosphingolipids in thymus from sheep, rabbit, and pig were performed. Qualitative and quantitative differences were found for each species. Thymus from all three species contained neolacto (Gal beta 1-4GlcNAc) glycosphingolipids; however, significant differences in the types and quantities expressed by each animal were found. An evaluation of other classes of glycosphingolipids and their quantities demonstrate that pig thymus has a much different pattern of glycosphingolipid expression than sheep and rabbit thymus. The major glycosphingolipids in pig thymus are globo-series neutral glycosphingolipids (Gb3 and Gb4) and lactosyl-series gangliosides (GM3 and GD3). In contrast, sheep and rabbit thymus express significant levels of lacto and neolacto neutral glycosphingolipids, and also lacto and neolacto gangliosides, including three previously unidentified compounds. The major difference in glycosphingolipid expression in these two species was the presence of branched-chain gangliosides in sheep thymus.