Developmental Changes in Ganglioside Composition of Hippocampus, Retina, and Optic Tectum

Abstract

Ganglioside content and pattern were analyzed in the rat hippocampus and in the retina and optic tectum of the chick embryo during periods of maximum neural differentiation. Allometric plots of ganglioside sialic acid against tissue dry weight were linear on a log-log scale, in either one (hippocampus and retina) or two (optic tectum) phases and at unique rates for each tissue. Ganglioside patterns changed consistently during development with decreases in D3 and increases in M1 and D1a. The ratio of D3 to M1 + D1a was found to be a simple quantitative predictor of the extent of differentiation (particularly synaptogenesis) in each tissue. However, a full complement of gangliosides was found prior to the onset of significant synapse formation.

Ganglioside Patterns Mature at Different Rates in Functionally Related Subregions of the Rat Pons

“…While the developmental time course of changes in ganglioside patterns have been well established for gross brain regions, the degree of specificity in developmental changes at the subregional level have not been thoroughly investigated. Temporal gradients in ganglioside pattern maturation are known to exist in the retina Irwin and Irwin, 1979b] and in subfields of the hippocampus [Derrington et al, 1990;Irwin and Irwin, 1979b;Irwin et al, 1982]. In general, however, ganglioside patterns have not been analyzed with sufficient anatomical specificity to map ganglioside metabolism onto specific cell populations with known integrative functions.…”

Changes in the Concentration and Composition of Human Brain Gangliosides with Aging

“…During development they undergo char acteristic changes in content and composi tion [8,13,17,25,26,33,38] and have there fore been suggested to be instructional mole cules for brain maturation. In particular, they appear to be functionally involved in the control of axonal [33] and dendritic [17] out growth, synaptogenesis [13,17] and the es tablishment of cell contact [34], In many ways, aging of the brain can be seen as the reversal of these events, with neu rons and synapses being lost [5,7], dendrites deteriorating [27,28] and myelin sheaths of neurons degenerating progressively [3]. This leads to the assumption that brain ganglio sides also change with aging, which has in fact been shown for the rat [24], Although there are extensive studies of developmental changes of human brain gangliosides during the fetal and prenatal period [22,32], studies concerning gangliosides of the adult human brain are scattered [4,10,14,[30][31][32]37], Consequently, the objective of our study was to cover the entire span of adult human life with special stress on senescence, and to re late possible changes of brain ganglioside content and composition to the structural changes described above.…”

“…During development they undergo char acteristic changes in content and composi tion [8,13,17,25,26,33,38] and have there fore been suggested to be instructional mole cules for brain maturation. In particular, they appear to be functionally involved in the control of axonal [33] and dendritic [17] out growth, synaptogenesis [13,17] and the es tablishment of cell contact [34], In many ways, aging of the brain can be seen as the reversal of these events, with neu rons and synapses being lost [5,7], dendrites deteriorating [27,28] and myelin sheaths of neurons degenerating progressively [3].…”

Effects of Neonatal 6-Hydroxydopamine Treatment on Cortical Development in Mice and Rats as Monitored by Developmental Changes of Gangliosides

“…This ganglioside has al so been suggested to play a specific role in ax on outgrowth [57]. The rapid accretion of GDla supposedly reflects the outgrowth of axons and dendrites [16,38,61,62] which oc curs at a maximum rate during the second and third week and may also be related to the events of synaptogenesis [5,11,58]. The sta ble concentration of GD3 is indicative of the continuous proliferation of astroglia [11,48], whereas the increase of GDlb during the third week can be tentatively associated with the migration of neuroglial cells through the white matter into the cerebral cortex [11].…”

“…Since the developmental accretion of individual gangliosides parallels morphogenetic events, these molecules have often been suggested to be instructive mole cules of brain maturation [11,16,37,38,49,51,57,59,61,62]. Consequently, alterations of cortical development caused by a lack of noradrenergic innervation could be expected to be reflected by changes of ganglioside met abolism in 6-OHDA-treated animals.…”