Sibille Estelle, Berdeaux Olivier, Martine Lucy, Bron Alain M, Creuzot-Garcher Catherine P, He Zhiguo, Thuret Gilles, Bretillon Lionel, Masson Elodie A Y
Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, CNRS, INRA, University Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France.
Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital, Dijon, France.
PLoS One. 2016 Dec 20;11(12):e0168794. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168794. eCollection 2016.
Gangliosides make a wide family of glycosphingolipids, highly heterogeneous in both the ceramide moiety and the oligosaccharide chain. While ubiquitously expressed in mammalian tissues, they are particularly abundant in the brain and the peripheral nervous system. Gangliosides are known to play a crucial role in the development, maintenance and functional integrity of the nervous system. However, the expression and roles of gangliosides in the retina, although often considered as a window on the brain, has been far less studied. We performed an in-depth analysis of gangliosides of the human retina, especially using powerful LC/MS methods. We compared the pattern of ganglioside classes and ceramide molecular species of this tissue with other ocular structures and with brain and plasma in elderly human individuals. About a hundred of ganglioside molecular species among 15 distinct classes were detected illustrating the huge structural diversity of these compounds. The retina exhibited a very diverse ganglioside profile and shared several common features with the brain (prominence of tetraosylgangliosides, abundance of d20:1 long chain base and 18:0 fatty acid…). However, the retina stood out with the specific expression of GD3, GT3 and AcGT3, which further presented a peculiar molecular species distribution. The unique ganglioside pattern we observed in the human retina suggests that these ganglioside species play a specific role in the structure and function of this tissue. This lipidomic study, by highlighting retina specific ganglioside species, opens up novel research directions for a better understanding of the biological role of gangliosides in the retina.
神经节苷脂构成了一个广泛的糖鞘脂家族，其神经酰胺部分和寡糖链高度异质。虽然它们在哺乳动物组织中普遍表达，但在大脑和外周神经系统中尤为丰富。已知神经节苷脂在神经系统的发育、维持和功能完整性中起关键作用。然而，尽管视网膜常被视为大脑的一扇窗口，但神经节苷脂在视网膜中的表达和作用却鲜少被研究。我们对人视网膜中的神经节苷脂进行了深入分析，尤其采用了强大的液相色谱/质谱方法。我们将该组织的神经节苷脂类别和神经酰胺分子种类模式与其他眼部结构以及老年个体的大脑和血浆进行了比较。在15个不同类别中检测到了约100种神经节苷脂分子种类，说明了这些化合物的巨大结构多样性。视网膜呈现出非常多样的神经节苷脂谱，并与大脑有几个共同特征（四糖基神经节苷脂突出、d20:1长链碱基和18:0脂肪酸丰富……）。然而，视网膜以GD3、GT3和AcGT3的特异性表达脱颖而出，它们进一步呈现出独特的分子种类分布。我们在人视网膜中观察到的独特神经节苷脂模式表明，这些神经节苷脂种类在该组织的结构和功能中发挥着特定作用。这项脂质组学研究通过突出视网膜特异性神经节苷脂种类，为更好地理解神经节苷脂在视网膜中的生物学作用开辟了新的研究方向。
