A blood group B-like pentaglycosylceramide is the major complex glycosphingolipid of the Madin-Darby canine kidney epithelial cell line I (MDCK I).

Two sublines of the epithelial cell line MDCK differ in glycosphingolipid composition (Hansson, G.C. et al. (1986) EMBO J. 5, 483-489). The Forssman pentaglycosylceramide was an abundant glycolipid in the MDCK II subline, but was absent in the MDCK I subline. The MDCK I line instead contained another five-sugar glycolipid in relatively large amounts. This component has now been isolated and characterized with mass spectrometry, methylation analysis, exoglycosidase digestion, and proton NMR spectroscopy. The structure was concluded to be Gal alpha 1----3Gal beta 1----4GlcNAc beta 1----3Gal beta 1----4Glc beta 1----1 Cer. This is a blood group B-like glycolipid lacking fucose, earlier found in rabbit and bovine erythrocytes.