Calcium mobilization induced by phosphorylated sphingoid bases was analyzed
in calf pulmonary artery endothelial cells by confocal microscopy. A sphin
genine-1-phosphate (SeP) analogue, N-acetyl-sphingenine-1-phosphate (N-C-2-
SeP), exogenously added to these cells, caused a fast and transient intrace
llular rise in calcium and was as potent as SeP, A minimal concentration of
0.6 nM for N-C-2-SeP versus 1 nM for SeP was determined, The N-C-2-SeP-ind
uced Ca2+-signaling, like the response to SeP, was due to a release from th
apsigargin-sensitive, ryanodine-insensitive, intracellular Ca2+- stores and
not to a Ca2+-influx, N-C-2-SeP can be considered as a truncated ceramide-
phosphate, a lipid already reported to be mitogenic (Gomez-Munoz, A., Duffy
, P.A., Martin, A., O'Brien, L., Byun, H.S., Bittman, R, and Brindley, D.N.
(1995) Mol. Pharmacol, 47, 833-839), an effect that might be secondary to
Ca2+-mobilization. (C) 1999 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.