GANGLIOSIDES AND GLYCEROPHOSPHOLIPIDS IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS WHITE MATTER

Data are presented for the composition of brain samples from controls and multiple sclerosis patients. Both plaques and adjacent normal-appearing white matter from the latter were analyzed. It was found that the ganglioside concentration and axon density in the plaques were below normal, but the decrease was much less than that found for typical myelin lipids. The parallelism in the effect was interpreted to mean that the gangliosides of white matter are primarily in the axons. The fatty acid distribution in the glycerophospholipids of the plaques greatly resembled that of gray matter, rather than white matter. The composition of the normal appearing white matter was close to that of control white matter.