Glycosyltransferase activities in human meningiomas. Preliminary results.

The biosynthesis of a given glycosphingolipid is under the control of specific glycosyltransferases, while its catabolism is catalyzed by step-wise action of glycosidases. The net amount of glycolipids apparently result from the difference between these two processes. However, other parameters should be taken into consideration, such as intracellular recycling of catabolic products, membrane insertion, and membrane turnover. In order to establish a possible correlation between ganglioside expression in brain tumor and the activities of the enzymes involved in their metabolism, we analyzed the activities of specific sialyltransferases (SAT-1 and SAT-2), galactosyltransferase (GalT-4), N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase (GalNAcT-1), and N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase (GlcNAcT-1) in 9 human meningiomas whose ganglioside pattern was characterized either by the predominance ganglioside GM3 (4 out of 9) or ganglioside GD3 (5 out of 9). The results indicated a strong correlation between the GM3/GD3 ratio and SAT-2 activity; to the contrary, SAT-1 activity did not show any correlation if compared with the Lc2/GM3 ratio. In all the samples where GM3 was the main ganglioside, little or no activity of GalNAcT-1 and GlcNAcT-1 was detectable.