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Updated: Mar 17, 2026
Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Glycosphingolipid Antigens
Published on: April 16, 2013
Ganglioside Composition in Beef, Chicken, Pork, and Fish Determined Using Liquid Chromatography-High-Resolution Mass
Bertram Y Fong1, Lin Ma1, Geok Lin Khor2
1Fonterra Research and Development Centre , Dairy Farm Road, Private Bag 11029, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand.
Abstract:
Gangliosides (GA) are found in animal tissues and fluids, such as blood and milk. These sialo-glycosphingolipids have bioactivities in neural development, the gastrointestinal tract, and the immune system. In this study, a high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) method was validated to characterize and quantitate the GA in beef, chicken, pork, and fish species (turbot, snapper, king salmon, and island mackerel). For the first time, we report the concentration of GM3, the dominant GA in these foods, as ranging from 0.35 to 1.1 mg/100 g and 0.70 to 5.86 mg/100 g of meat and fish, respectively. The minor GAs measured were GD3, GD1a, GD1b, and GT1b. Molecular species distribution revealed that the GA contained long- to very-long-chain acyl fatty acids attached to the ceramide moiety. Fish GA contained only N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuAc) sialic acid, while beef, chicken, and pork contained GD1a/b species that incorporated both NeuAc and N-glycolylneuraminic acid (NeuGc) and hydroxylated fatty acids.
