K. Letinic et al., C-PATHWAY POLYSIALOGANGLIOSIDES ARE TRANSIENTLY EXPRESSED IN THE HUMAN CEREBRUM DURING FETAL DEVELOPMENT, Neuroscience, 86(1), 1998, pp. 1-5
Gangliosides are assumed to play a crucial role in processes of cellul
ar recognition and interaction important for neural development.(1,3,9
) They are designated as cytochemical markers of neuronal maturation,
as striking changes in the ganglioside pattern parallel the nervous sy
stem development.(14) Of particular interest to us are numerous studie
s that reported during migration of postmitotic neurons and axon forma
tion in developing avian and mammalian brains a transient accumulation
of highly sialylated c-pathway gangliosides.(14) However, it has thus
far been thought that c-pathway gangliosides do not appear in the hum
an cerebrum; their absence could be somehow interpreted(8) in the ligh
t of an evolutionary trend in the pattern of brain gangliosides: by in
creasing the phylogenetic scale this pattern changes by an accretion o
f less sialylated gangliosides and switches from c- via b- to a-series
, respectively.(4,14) The present study presents both biochemical and
immunocytochemical evidence for the existence of c-pathway ganglioside
s in the human cerebrum during prenatal life, and their localization i
n discrete neuronal populations and growing axonal pathways. (C) 1998
IBRO. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.