Sex- and age-related differences in ceramide dihexosides of primary human brain tumors

Neutral glycolipids (NGL) are promising diagnostic markers of human gliomas , but differences in NGL with age and sex have not been examined. Previous work demonstrated that ceramide dihexosides (CDH) levels in mouse kidney ar e age- and sex-dependent, probably due to levels of sex hormones, We quanti tated CDH in 181 human gliomas and found significant differences with sex a nd age, particularly menopause and male puberty. This emphasizes the import ance of assessing results of studies on glycolipids in disease stales with respect to age and sex in order to avoid erroneous conclusions concerning t he relationship of glycolipid composition with diagnosis and pathogenesis.