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The lipidoses: morphologic changes in the nervous system in Gaucher's disease, GM2 gangliosidoses and Niemann-Pick disease.

The present paper presents, in tabular form, most of the inborn errors of lipid metabolism (exclusive of the hyperlipoproteinemias); some may, with further studies, be removed from this category. Three of the lipidoses and their subtypes which are associated with severe neurologic disorders are discussed, i.e., infantile Gaucher's disease, Niemann-Pick disease and the GM2 gangliosidoses. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of careful biochemical and enzymatic studies of either surgical or autopsy material of any patient suspected of having one of the lipidoses. Only by such studies can an exact diagnosis of virtually all of these inborn errors of lipid metabolism be established. Such a diagnosis is important, since in many instances an antenatal diagnosis is possible by demonstration of the enzymatic defect in cell grown in tissue culture from the amniotic fluid.

Brain

Histochemical diagnosis of lipidoses.

Contemporary possibilities for the histochemical diagnosis of lipidoses are demonstrated in examples of phospholipidoses, Gaucher's disease, Fabry's disease, sulphatidosis, gangliosidosis and neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinoses.

Biopsy

Lymph node excision as a simple diagnostic aid in rare lipidoses.

Autopsy material from a case of Niemann-Pick disease was subjected to lipid analysis. Among the six tissues investigated, lymph nodes exhibited the greatest storage of several lipids. Since lymph nodes are relatively easy to obtain by biopsy, they may be utilized for chemical diagnosis of this type of lipidosis.

Child

The cerebral lipidoses.

The disorders presented consist of those clinical entities in which a reasonably well defined lipid storage material accumulated within nervous tissue. Many other progressive, degenerative disorders are suspected of being storage disorders, but their chemical pathology remains unclear. Collectively this group could be designated the sphingolipidoses. In each case, the disease is a genetic disturbance and transmitted as an autosomal recessive. Sphingolipid storage in each disorder is associated with deficient activity of a specific degradative enzyme or enzyme system, and these deficient enzymes are all lysosomal hydrolases. Lysosomal hydrolases catalyze the breakdown of complex molecules in digestive vacuoles (phagocytic or autophagic) within the cells. Lysosomes show structural latency (requiring osmotic shock or freeze thawing in vitro); their enzymes show maximal activity at acidic pH ranges, and on electron microscopic examination they appear as small, electron-dense intracellular bodies. These hydrolytic enzymes seem to have some form of biological vulnerability in terms of their genetic expression, and this vulnerability underlies the sphingolipidoses. Diagnosis in each case is primarily a clinical problem. The presentation of these disorders, especially in intermediate or advanced forms, is sufficiently distinctive to permit a reasonably accurate diagnosis on the basis of history, physical examination, and routine laboratory data. Patients seen in early stages may be more difficult to recognize but follow-up evaluations usually clarify the problem. Specific enzyme assays are now available for confirmation of the diagnosis in these disorders. A frequent finding in this connection is an increase in the activities of noninvolved lysosomal hydrolases in the storage disorders. Once a case is clinically diagnosed, the clinician has the responsibility of ensuring that proper genetic counseling is made available to the affected families. Considerable supportive care is needed in each case. These patients can survive for prolonged periods, and great stress is placed on their families by these prolonged, hopeless illnesses. Since the disorders affect infants or young children, their parents are usually young adults in their early reproductive years. It is essential that they receive information concerning the risk of subsequent pregnancies. Specific diagnosis of the fetus in early pregnancy can be made now by amniocentesis and enzyme assays on cultured fibroblasts. If the fetus is a homozygote on the basis of enzyme assays, the option of therapeutic abortion should be discussed with the family. For many parents there will be considerable sensitivity to the ethical implications of this course and, if any doubt arises, ethical or pastoral consultation should be sought. Although there are no specific therapeutic approaches, a considerable degree of supportive care can and should be given. In the gangliosidoses and late in the course of the leukodystrophies, seizures will present management problems...

Adult

Skin punch biopsies and lymphocytes in the diagnosis of lipidoses.

Skin punch biopsies and buffy coats of white blood cells were examined electron microscopically in patients suffering from a variety of storage diseases. No specific abnormalities could be detected in Gaucher's disease and adreno-leucodystrophy. While characteristic deposits were found in cutaneous nerves in globoid and metachromatic leucodystrophy, this method was deemed inferior to sural nerve biopsy. In gangliosidoses, on the other hand, pathognomonic membranous cytoplasmic bodies were common in axons of cutaneous nerves, and in generalized gangliosidoses marked vacuolation of many other cells was prominent. Specific deposits were found in various cells in skin punch biopsies and in lymphocytes of children suffering from ceroid lipofuscinoses, and in lymphocytes of their parents. This constitutes the easiest diagnostic laboratory procedure in such cases.

Adolescent

Enzymological approaches to the lipidoses.

There are now ten known heritable disorders of lipid metabolism for which the nature of the underlying enzymological defect is conclusively established. In addition to devising procedures for successful enzyme replacement therapy, much current work deals with the development of convenient, effective methods for the rapid diagnosis of patients with these disorders, the detection of heterozygous carriers of these diseases, and the monitoring of pregnancies at risk for these conditions. Clinical enzymologists are required to assume increasing responsibilities in the performance of these tests, and the present contribution describes the application of fundamental principles and discusses recent developments along this line. In particular, the development of facile chromogenic reagents for the diagnosis of patients with Niemann-Pick disease and Krabbe's disease is delineated. Previously, the diagnosis of such patients required the use of radioactivity labeled compounds and such testing was limited to relatively few research laboratories. The novelty of these reagents and their application comprise the major aspect of this presentation.

Cerebrosides

[Differential diagnosis of congenital lipidoses by lipid analyses of body fluids, biopsy and autopsy tissue].

1. Presentation of the commomly used procedures for the extraction and separation of total lipids, glycolipids and phosholipids from fresh and formalin-fixed organs tissues (brain, liver, spleen, kidney) as well as from serum, CSF and urine. II. Description of the qualitative and quantitative analysis of individual lipid fractions (glycolipids, gangliosides, phospholipids, neutral lipids) by thin-layer chromatograhy and photodensitometry. III. Results of investigations performed on biopsy material, autopsy material, serum and urine in the following diseases: 1. Infantile, juvenile and adult Gaucher's disease: accumulation of glucocerebroside in liver and spleen. 2. Infantile and adult Niemann-Pick disease: accumulation of sphingomyelin in liver, spleen, kidney and lung. 3. Fabry's disease: increased urinary excretion of trihexosyl-ceramide and dihexosyl-ceramide. 4. Infantile and adult metachromatic leukodystrophy: accumulation of sulfatides in the central and peripheral nervous system and kidney, increased urinary excretion of sulfatides. 5. Austin's variant of metachromatic leukodystrophy: besides an increase of sulfatides in the white matter of brain accumulation of glycolipids in the cerebral cortex. 6. Tay-Sachs disease (GM2-gangliosidosis): cerebral accumulation of GM2-ganglioside and trihexosylceramide (enzyme variant B), additional visceral accumulation (liver, spleen, kidney) of tetrahexosyl-ceramide = globoside (enzyme variant 0). 7. Infantile generalized GM1-gangliosidosis: cerebral (and visceral) accumulation of GM1-ganglioside and tetrahexosyl-ceramide. 8. Late infantile GM1-gangliosidosis: Cerebral accumulation of GM1-ganlioside and tetrahexosylceramide. 9. GM3-gangliosidosis (lactosyl-ceramidosis): neuronal accumulation of lactosyl-ceramide, GM2-ganglioside and GM3-ganglioside. 10. Refsum's disease: demonstration of phytanic acid esters of cholesterol in serum.

Autopsy

Familial juvenile neuronal storage disease. New disease or variant of juvenile lipidosis?

Two patients had an illness characterized by a positive family history, juvenile onset, macular cherry-red spots, myoclonus, generalized convulsions, and cerebellar ataxia. Neither had dementia, gargoyle facies, bone or joint deformities, or visceromegaly. Vacuolated lymphocytes were not seen in the peripheral blood or bone marrow. Specimens from the rectum and vermiform appendix showed Sudan black B-, Sudan III-, and PAS-positive granules within the neurons of the myenteric plexus. On electron microscopic examination, lysosome-like bodies, membranous cytoplasmic bodies, pleomorphic lamellated bodies, dense bodies, and lipofuscin-like bodies in the neurons were seen, with a suggestion of morphological transitional forms among them. Sialoglycopeptides, especially sialic acid, were increased in the urine, but excretion of acid mucopolysaccharides was normal. Assays of lysosomal enzymes in leucocytes showed normal enzymatic activity. On the basis of the clinical, biochemical, and histological results, we suggest that these two cases and four similar cases reported in the literature be classified differently from the previously described lipidoses, although it is not known whether these cases represent a new entity or merely a clinical variant of juvenile lipidosis.

Adolescent

Secondary lipidosis in leukemia.

Foam cells in the spleen, bone marrow, liver and lymph nodes were examined on the 73 reliably recorded and sampled leukemia autopsy cases encountered at Kobe University from 1958 to 1972. Although the substances stored in the foam cells were biochemically unknown, the foam cells in leukemia could be morphologically classified into two types: The one was identified with the Gaucher type, but the other was not identified with the sea-blue type and might be considered as to be the transitional type described in another report. Foam cells could be found in the spleen of 6 out of 12 cases of chronic myeloid leukemia, one out of 2 cases of chronic lymphatic leukemia, one out of 7 cases of leukemic lymphosarcoma, one out of 9 cases of acute lymphatic leukemia, and none in 3 cases of monocytic leukemia. In acute myeloid leukemia, the incidence of foam cells in the spleen was 47.5% in 40 cases, and acquired lipidoses were more frequently seen in cases under 19 years of age, in male cases, in cases with an enlarged spleen over 400 g, and in cases of over 4 months' duration.

Autopsy

Morphological study of skin biopsy specimens: a contribution to the diagnosis of metabolic disorders with involvement of the nervous system.

Skin biopsies were performed in 71 patients affected by the following disorders: ceroid-lipofuscinoses (17 cases), mucopolysaccharidoses (13 cases) mucolipidoses (seven cases), lipidoses (18 cases), metabolic diseases to be further classified (seven cases), acid maltase deficiency (nine cases). After a survey of semithin sections, the skin specimens were examined with the electron microscope. In most of the cases, epithelial cells, hair follicles, fibroblasts, eccrine sweat glands, smooth muscle cells, sebaceous glands, and nerve bundles were available. In 62 cases (87.3%), positive diagnostic information was obtained while in seven other cases (9.9%) suggestive features were discovered which could support the final diagnosis. In only two cases (2.8%) were the results negative. We conclude that, in association with enzymatic assays in the cultured fibroblasts, a skin biopsy specimen provides a simple opportunity for the combination of both morphological and biochemical diagnosis of storage disorders, precluding major surgical procedures.

Adolescent

[Chloroquine keratopathy as an example of drug-induced phospholipidosis (contribution to the pathogenesis of cornea verticillata) (author's transl)].

Chronic treatment with certain drugs induces morphological alterations in the eye which are histologically and electron microscopically identical with those found in hereditary lipidoses (cornea verticillata, e.g. in M. Fabry). Hereditary storage diseases are the consequence of enzyme defects, the mechanism underlying the side effect of certain drugs, however, is quite different. "Amphiphilic" drugs from completely different pharmacological groups, like chloroquine, amiodarone, chlorpromazine form complexes with cellular phospholipids which cannot be metabolised by lysosomal phospholipases. Thus in all tissues with high phospholipid content or turnover typical intracellular deposites with lamellary or crystalloid structure may occur (myelin figures). Such deposites were observed in different parts of the eye and are known e.g. from the cornea as "cornea verticillata".

Adrenal Glands

Retinal lipidosis in albino rats treated with chlorphentermine and with tricyclic antidepressants.

Retinal pigment epithelium is known to be engaged in continuous phagocytosis and digestion of old discs of visual cell outer segments, which have a high phospholipid content. The present ultrastructural study was focused mainly on the effects, upon pigment epithelium, of several drugs that are thought to interfere with the enzymatic degradation of phospholipids. Albino rats received high oral doses of chlorphentermine, iprindole, 1-chloroamitriptyline, imipramine, or clomipramine. After treatment for several weeks the pigment epithelial cells were doubled in height due to deposition of excessive amounts of abnormal cytoplasmic inclusions which had a crystalloid substructure. Such inclusions which are known from previous studies to be associated with drug-induced phospholipid storage are suggested to contain nondigestible phospholipids, which in pigment epithelium originate mainly from phagocytosed outer segment discs. The alterations were reversible by withdrawal of the drugs. The functional implications of the epithelial alterations remain to be elucidated. Additional examination of the neuroretina revealed numerous abnormal inclusions, mainly of multilamellated structure. Ganglion cells were affected most. The neuroretinal alterations were reminiscent of those described in human cases of inherited lipidoses.

Amitriptyline

Storage of glycoprotein in NCTR-Balb/C mouse. Lectin histochemistry, and biochemical studies.

A strain of Balb/C mice carrying a lysosomal storage disorder exhibits metabolic and phenotypic abnormalities similar to patients with sphingomyelin-cholesterol lipidoses type II (i.e., Niemann-Pick C and D). Their foamy cells, which belong to the reticuloendothelial system, stained intensely by periodate-Schiff (PAS) reagent and were resistant to predigestion with diastase. To identify the chemical nature of the PAS-positive storage material, we applied lectin histochemistry and biochemical methods. Paraffin embedded sections, and delipidated frozen tissue sections, were treated with biotinylated lectins and localized with avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex. Araldite-embedded semithin sections were incubated with biotinylated lectins followed by avidin-gold and were enhanced with silver. By both histochemical methods the affected foamy cells stained positively as follows: Concanavalia ensiformis agglutinin, Datura stramonium agglutinin, Griffonia simplicifolia-I, Lens culinaris agglutinin, peanut agglutinin, Ricinus communis agglutinin-I, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), and succinylated-WGA. Biochemical analysis of liver extracts complemented the histochemical data and demonstrated accumulation of glycoproteins containing polylactosaminoglycans in affected mice. Our findings indicate that the storage material in NCTR-Balb/C mice is heterogeneous. The lipids that are extracted by organic solvents during the histologic preparations mask the occurrence of polylactosaminoglycan containing glycoproteins in native frozen sections.

Animals

[Clinical and electrophysiological aspects of the gangliosidoses (author's transl)].

The gangliosidoses belong to the family of diseases known as the lipidoses and are due to an excess of ganglioside I (GM1) or II (GM2). The illness described by Landing belongs to Group I, whilst Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff's disease are type 2. This study was particularly concerned with the electro-clinical aspects of group 2, and 4 stages have been differentiated: --the first occurs between 4-10 months: the child is apathetic, hypotonic and has occasional audiogenic seizures; fundoscopy revealing the classical cherry red spot on the macula. The diagnosis can be confirmed by biopsy. The EEG is irregular but abnormalities are minor. --the second stage (10 months-2 years) the child spastic and amaurotic, often unresponsive is suffering from frequent seizures. The EEG is of high voltage, with slow and sharp waves. Auditory stimulation does not produce EEG changes. --in the third and 4th stages (after 2 years) the child is in a vegetative state with a progressive reduction in EEG voltage and sharp waves until death aged 3 or 4. Although there is a good correlation between clinical signs and EEG this is of no diagnostic value.

Brain