Composition of cerebroside acids as a function of age

• Main Authors: Yasuo Kishimoto, Norman S. Radin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 1959-10-01
• Series: Journal of Lipid Research
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022227520390969

The brains of from 11 to 30 rats of various age groups—23 to 418 days old—were pooled and analyzed for total lipids, total cerebrosides, and the individual cerebroside acids. Cerebroside deposition is evident over the range of ages studied, and its contribution to the total deposition becomes increasingly important with increasing age. Cerebronic acid is by far the major cerebroside acid, but appreciable amounts of the α-hydroxy C23 and C22 acids are also present. The unsaturated acids constitute a minor element, and the contribution of the hydroxy unsaturated acids is least. The odd-numbered acids show the greatest increases with age, compared to the other acids, while the hydroxy unsaturated acids show little accumulation except during the earliest period studied. Degradation experiments with the saturated hydroxy acids show that the hydroxyl groups are in the alpha position.