Gangliosides with NeuAcα2-6Gal structure have been studied in human hepatocellular carcinoma. The gangliosides were purified to homogeneity by a DEAE-Sephadex A-25 column chromatography and by repeated silica beads column chromatography. Three gangliosides containing NeuAcα2-6Gal structure were isolated and were structurally characterized by using monoclonal antibodies, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry, methylation analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and exoglycosidase treatments. The first compound was identified as NeuAcα2-6Galβ1-4GlcNAcβ1-3Galβ1-4Glcβ1-1Cer. The structures of 2 other components were concluded to be as follows: ?? and ?? The first compound is a ganglioside that is characteristic of human meconium. The second compound has the same structure as a ganglioside recently found by us (Taki, T., Rokukawa, C., Kasama, T., Kon, K., Ando, S., Abe, T., and Handa, S., J. Biol. Chem., 267: 11811–11817, 1992) in meconium. The third compound is a novel type of ganglioside having blood group I-type structure as the core sequence. In addition to these gangliosides, 5 others were detected, and all except for GM3 were glycolipids with neolacto-series core structure. These results suggest that enzymes for the synthesis of neolacto type and NeuAcα2-6Gal structure of glycolipids are activated in hepatoma.

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This work was supported in part by a Grant-in Aid for Cancer Research (no. 03152043) from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan.

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©1992 American Association for Cancer Research.
1992
American Association for Cancer Research, Inc.