title: Roles of sphingosine-1-phosphate in cell growth, differentiation, and death.
abstract: Recent evidence suggests that branching pathways of sphingolipid metabolism may mediate either apoptotic or mitogenic responses depending on the cell type and the nature of the stimulus. While ceramide has been shown to be an important regulatory component of apoptosis induced by tumor necrosis factor alpha and the Fas ligand, sphingosine-1-phosphate (SPP), a further metabolite of ceramide, has been implicated as a second messenger in cellular proliferation and survival induced by platelet-derived growth factor, neuronal growth factor, and serum. SPP protects cells from apoptosis resulting from elevations of ceramide. Inflammatory cytokines stimulate sphingomyelinase, but not ceramidase, leading to accumulation of ceramide, whereas growth signals also stimulate ceramidase and sphingosine kinase leading to increased SPP levels. We propose that the dynamic balance between levels of sphingolipid metabolites, ceramide, and SPP and consequent regulation of different members of the mitogen-activated protein kinases (JNK versus ERK) family is an important factor that determines whether a cell survives or dies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA. spiegel@biochem1.basic-sci.georgetown.edu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Spiegel
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Cuvillier
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Edsall
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kohama
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Menzeleev
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olivera
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Brocklyn
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008246:Lysophospholipids; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000494:pharmacology; D015290:Second Messenger Systems; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013110:Sphingosine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D008246:Lysophospholipids; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; C060506:sphingosine 1-phosphate; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases; D013110:Sphingosine