A simple method for screening for Farber disease on cultured skin fibroblasts.
Farber disease is an inborn lysosomal storage disorder characterized by accumulation of ceramide in the patient's tissues due to the deficient activity of acid ceramidase. Currently, confirmation of the diagnosis is performed in an extremely limited number of laboratories. We therefore developed a procedure which does not require any particular sphingolipid substrate and is based on the quantitation of ceramide levels in cultured skin fibroblasts. In the method we devised, the ceramide present in cellular lipid extracts subjected to mild alkaline hydrolysis was quantified using the commercially available diacylglycerol kinase kit. We show that both primary cultures of skin fibroblasts and SV40-transformed fibroblasts derived from a series of patients with Farber disease exhibit ceramide excess as compared to their normal counterparts (2345-17 153 pmol/mg cell protein in Farber cells vs. 432-1298 pmol/mg cell protein in controls). Use of this simple method should greatly facilitate the biochemical diagnosis of Farber disease.
Chatelut
M
M
Laboratoire de Biochimie, CJF INSERM 9206. Toulouje, France.
Feunteun
J
J
Harzer
K
K
Fensom
A H
AH
Basile
J P
JP
Salvayre
R
R
Levade
T
T
D055573:Acid Ceramidase; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000581:Amidohydrolases / Q000378:metabolism; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D055572:Ceramidases; D002518:Ceramides / Q000378:metabolism*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002855:Chromatography, Thin Layer; D005260:Female; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016464:Lysosomal Storage Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013539:Simian virus 40 / Q000502:physiology
D002518:Ceramides; D000581:Amidohydrolases; C526693:ASAH1 protein, human; D055573:Acid Ceramidase; D055572:Ceramidases