Modification of glycoconjugate content and distribution in human meningiomas

Meningiomas are among the more common tumors of the CNS. In many aspects they are well characterized; however, data on glycoconjugate content and distribution are somehow scarce and conflicting. Recently it was reported that the glycoprotein pattern is characterized by the presence of two fractions (70 and 50 KDa) which, however, were reported to be present also in other brain tumors. We have studied 75 samples of meningiomas of different histological types and the main results are: 1. tumor tissues have a higher ganglioside content than control leptomeninges; 2. ganglioside pattern, characterized by the absence of polysialylated species, seems to be correlated with the karyotype of the patients and not with the histological clasification. 3. In all the meningiomas we observed the presence of a poorly sialylated, monomeric, 'peripheral-associated' glycoprotein of 37 KDa, with a complex N-linked triantennary and/or tetraantennary structure.