title: An introduction to sphingolipid metabolism and analysis by new technologies.
abstract: Sphingolipids (SP) are a complex class of molecules found in essentially all eukaryotes and some prokaryotes and viruses where they influence membrane structure, intracellular signaling, and interactions with the extracellular environment. Because of the combinatorial nature of their biosynthesis, there are thousands of SP subspecies varying in the lipid backbones and complex phospho- and glycoheadgroups. Therefore, comprehensive or "sphingolipidomic" analyses (structure-specific, quantitative analyses of all SP, or at least all members of a critical subset) are needed to know which and how much of these subspecies are present in a system as a step toward understanding their functions. Mass spectrometry and related novel techniques are able to quantify a small fraction, but nonetheless a substantial number, of SP and are beginning to provide information about their localization. This review summarizes the basic metabolism of SP and state-of-art mass spectrometric techniques that are producing insights into SP structure, metabolism, functions, and some of the dysfunctions of relevance to neuromedicine.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
authors.forename: Yanfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: M Cameron
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Sullards
authors.forename: Alfred H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Merrill
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002855:Chromatography, Thin Layer; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D015394:Molecular Structure; D051381:Rats; D015398:Signal Transduction; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000379:methods*; D013107:Sphingolipids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D013107:Sphingolipids