[The metabolism of radiolabelled GM1-ganglioside in cultured skin fibroblasts from controls and patients with GM1-gangliosidosis].

The metabolism of [3-3H-sphingosine] GM1-ganglioside was studied in cultured skin fibroblasts from control and patients with beta-galactosidase deficiency, primarily or secondarily. When dissolved in the medium with phosphatidylserine, GM1-ganglioside was efficiently taken up by cultured skin fibroblasts and transferred into lysosomes. A pulse-chase study revealed that [3-3H-sphingosine] GM1-ganglioside was metabolized to GM2-, GM3-ganglioside, ceramide, ceramide monohexoside, ceramide dihexoside and sphingomyelin. In a 20h pulse study, cell lines from patients with GM1-gangliosidosis of infantile, juvenile and adult types hydrolyzed 2 approximately 5%, 20 approximately 44% and 54 approximately 58% of the total endocytosed GM1-ganglioside respectively. These values were lower than in the control cells (62.2 +/- 5.43% (n=10). The hydrolysis rates of exogenous [3-3H-sphingosine] GM1-ganglioside in cultured skin fibroblasts from various types of GM1-gangliosidosis closely correlated to the clinical severity. This method is also useful to the diagnosis of impaired ganglioside metabolism.