Galactocerebroside
Encyclopedia
Cerebroside
Cerebrosides is the common name for a group of glycosphingolipids called monoglycosylceramides which are important components in animal muscle and nerve cell membranes.They consist of a ceramide with a single sugar residue at the 1-hydroxyl moiety...
consisting of a ceramide
Ceramide
Ceramides are a family of lipid molecules. A ceramide is composed of sphingosine and a fatty acid. Ceramides are found in high concentrations within the cell membrane of cells. They are one of the component lipids that make up sphingomyelin, one of the major lipids in the lipid bilayer...
with a galactose
Galactose
Galactose , sometimes abbreviated Gal, is a type of sugar that is less sweet than glucose. It is a C-4 epimer of glucose....
residue at the 1-hydroxyl moiety.
The galactose is cleaved by galactosylceramidase
Galactosylceramidase
Galactosylceramidase is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the GALC gene. Galactosylceramidase is an enzyme which removes galactose from ceramide derivatives .- Function :...
.
Galactocerebroside is a marker for oligodendrocytes in the brain, whether or not they form myelin .
