Histochemical similarities between human and animal globoid cells in Krabbe's disease: a lectin study

Lectin-histochemical studies were performed on paraffin-embedded brain tissue sections to identify the specific sugar residues of undegraded "stored" substances in the cytoplasm of globoid cells from patients with globoid cell leukodystrophy. We studied brain tissues from six human patients with galactosylceramide lipidosis (i.e., Krabbe's disease) and compared them to brain tissues from animals with a similar enzyme deficiency including seven Twitcher mice, three dogs and two cats. The globoid cells in all 18 cases studied stained with succinylated-wheat germ agglutinin (S-WGA), but did not stain with Dilichos biflorus agglutinin, soybean agglutinin or Ulex europaeus agglutinin-I. Bandeirea simplicifolia agglutinin-I stained the globoid cells in Twitcher mice, dogs and cats but not those in humans. Concanavalia ensiformis agglutinin, wheat germ agglutinin and Ricinus communis agglutinin-I all stained each of the globoid cells in the mouse, dog and cat tissues, but only in some of the human cases. Peanut agglutinin, however, variably stained globoid cells in the mouse and dog cases but not at all in the human and cat cases. These results demonstrate a common terminal carbohydrate residue N-acetyl glucosamine, which binds S-WGA in the undegraded material stored within the globoid cells in galactoceramide lipidosis. These cells also contained various other stored molecules with sugar residues whose nature is determined by species or individually.