Sulfatide synthesis by neural cell lines.

Several neural cell lines were examined for their ability to synthesize sulfatide and 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide phosphohydrolase, biochemical components characteristic of myelin. The mouse glioma G26 and the rat schwannoma TRM6B actively produced sulfatide, while the rat glioma C6 was inactive, supporting the probable oligodendroglial origin of the G26. In contrast, the C6 cell line had a high level of 2'-3'-cyclic nucleotide phosphohydrolase activity, while TRM6B showed 30% and the G26 75% lower activities. Thus, these two activities appear to be independently regulated.