Neurochemistry of the mucopolysaccharidoses: brain lipids and lysosomal enzymes in patients with four types of mucopolysaccharidosis and in normal controls.

Abstract

Abstract— Lipids and certain lysosomal enzymes were measured in the cerebral gray and white matter and in the liver of unaffected controls and six patients with mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS). Three of the patients had MPS Type I (Hurler), one Type II (Hunter), one Type IIIA (Sanfilippo A) and one Type V (Scheie). The glycosaminoglycans (GAG) of those tissues have been fully characterized previously (Constantopouloset al., 1976).Results of the present study: the normally minor brain monosialogangliosides GM2 and GM3 were markedly increased in the gray and to a lesser extent in the white matter of all the patients, except the patient with MPS Type V. On an average GM2 comprised 8.2 and 6.3, and GM3 11.8 and 6.0% of the total ganglioside neuraminic acid of the gray and white matter respectively in all patients with MPS I, II, and IIIA (normal subjects had less than 1).Ceramide dihexoside was also increased in the gray matter of the patients with MPS I, MPS II and MPS IIIA.The sphingolipid abnormalities were found only in tissues containing excessive amounts of partially degraded dermatan and heparan sulfates or heparan sulfate alone.Of the six acid hydrolases assayed, the activity of /f‐glucosaminidase was increased in both brain and liver, while that of α‐galactosidase and β‐galactosidase was diminished, particularly in the liver.These results suggest that the partially degraded heparan sulfate (and perhaps the dermatan sulfate) which accumulate in the tissues of the patients with MPS may inhibit catabolic enzymes of various sphingolipids. In turn, accumulation of sphingolipids could be responsible at least for some of the brain damage and the mental retardation in MPS I, II and IIIA.