Gangliosides carbohydrates

Structural Analyses Of Gangliosides. Carbohydrate composition, methylation analysis, enzyme treatment and partial acid hydrolysis were performed as described previously (9). 

T. Terada, M. Kiso, and A. Hasegawa, Synthesis of KDN-Iactotetraosylceramide, KDN-neolactotetraosylceramide, and KDN-Lewis X ganglioside, Carbohydr. Res. 259 201 (1994). 

A bacterial enterotoxin related to cholera toxin is also a target for a multivalent inhibitor. When ingested, the enterotoxin s five identical binding sites recognize and bind to ganglioside carbohydrate groups in the gut lining (163). 

Ohashi, M., 1981, A new type of ganglioside Carbohydrate structures of the major gangliosides from brain, in Proc. 6th Int. Symp. Glycoconjuages (T. Yamakawa, T. Osawa, and S. Handa, eds.), Japanese Scientific Press, Tokyo, pp. 33-34. 

Among the important glycolipids, which are combinations of carbohydrate and lipid, are the cerebrosides and gangliosides. These are constituents of brain and nervous tissue and are usually considered with lipids because they are water-insoluble. Water-soluble polymers of high relative molecular mass containing lipid and carbohydrate, known as lipopolysaccharides, are found in bacterial cell walls. 

In general the sphingolipids are located on the exterior face of a membrane while the phospholipids make up the inner face. This is understandable when we recall that sphingolipids include the gangliosides and cerebrosides whose polar ends contain carbohydrates or complex carbohydrate derivatives. The large number of chiral centers in carbohydrate molecules offer a complex pattern on the surface of the membrane which can impart a large degree of specificity for a particular cell type. The composition and limited fluidity of the bilayer make the entire membrane asymmetric, that is, different on the inner and outer layers or leaflets. 

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