Structural Lipids in Membranes:- Sphingolipids at Cell Surfaces Are Sites of Biological Recognition
When sphingolipids were discovered a century ago by the physician-chemist Johann Thudichum, their biological role seemed as enigmatic as the Sphinx, for which he therefore named them. In humans, at least 60 different sphingolipids have been identified in cellular membranes. Many of these are especially prominent in the plasma membranes of neurons, and some are clearly recognition sites on the cell surface, but a specific function for only a few sphingolipids has been discovered thus far. The carbohydrate moieties of certain sphingolipids define the human blood groups and therefore determine the type of blood that individuals can safely receive in blood transfusions (Fig. 10–14).
FIGURE 10–13 The similarities in shape and in molecular structure of phosphatidylcholine (a glycerophospholipid) and sphingomyelin (a sphingolipid) are clear when their space-filling and structural formulas are drawn as here.
FIGURE 10–14 Glycosphingolipids as determinants of blood groups. The human blood groups (O, A, B) are determined in part by the oligosaccharide head groups (blue) of these glycosphingolipids. The same three oligosaccharides are also found attached to certain blood proteins of individuals of blood types O, A, and B, re spectively. (Fuc represents the sugar fucose.)
Gangliosides are concentrated in the outer surface of cells, where they present points of recognition for extracellular molecules or surfaces of neighboring cells. The kinds and amounts of gangliosides in the plasma membrane change dramatically during embryonic development. Tumor formation induces the synthesis of a new complement of gangliosides, and very low concentrations of a specific ganglioside have been found to in duce differentiation of cultured neuronal tumor cells. Investigation of the biological roles of diverse gangliosides remains fertile ground for future research.
