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Updated: Apr 13, 2026

Ganglioside Extraction, Purification and Profiling
Published on: March 12, 2021
Gangliosides: glycosphingolipids essential for normal neural development and function
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
Abstract:
Lipid rafts, sites of signal transduction, are enriched in glycosphingolipids (GSLs). Gangliosides, a class of GSLs found in greatest concentration in the grey matter of the brain, can affect neuronal function by modulating cell signaling. This review summarizes changes in ganglioside expression during brain development, the specific effects they induce, and makes observations about their possible role(s) in dementing diseases. Given that the average lifespan of individuals in many countries has increased, and that aging is accompanied by an increasing probability of dementia, understanding how changes in the GSL composition of lipid rafts may contribute to the cell biological basis of a specific dementing phenotype is an important area of study.
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