Accumulation of glyceryl ether lipids in Wolman's disease.

We have shown that ether-linked glycerolipids accumulated in the adrenal, liver, and spleen of a male Chinese infant with Wolman's disease; the increases were mainly in the alkyl and alk-1-enyl glycerolipids that did not contain phosphorus. Alkyldiacylglycerol accounted for a portion of the rise in the neutral alkylglycerols. The spleen also contained increased amounts of ether-linked phosphoglycerides of the alkyl and alk-1-enyl types. Organs from a Niemann-Pick patient were also included in this study; they did not show comparable rises in the content of ether-linked glycerolipids, suggesting the possibility that storage of these compounds may be characteristic of Wolman's disease, or a variant form thereof.