Involvement of ganglioside GT1b in glutamate release from neuroblastoma cells

Since gangliosides play many important roles in neural systems, we investigated whether gangliosides are involved in glutamate release from neural cells. Differentiated neruro2a cells were treated with gangliosides, including GM3, GM1, GD1a, GD3, GD1b, or GT1b, for 30 min, and glutamate concentration in the culture media was measured using o-phthalaldehyde derivatization. Among the tested gangliosides, GT1b significantly increased the glutamate concentration when compared with untreated cells. Moreover, GT1b increased the glutamate concentration in the culture media of neuroblastoma × dorsal root ganglion neuron hybrid F11 cells. These results suggested that gangliosides are important in regulating extracellular glutamate concentration in the nervous system.