Synthesis and characterization of metabolically stable sphingolipids

Labeled chemical biology tools for investigating sphingolipid metabolism, trafficking and interaction with lipids and proteins

The unraveling of sphingolipid metabolism and function in the last 40 years relied on the extensive study of inherited human disease and specifically-tailored mouse models. However, only few of the achievements made so far would have been possible without chemical biology tools, such as fluorescent and/or radio-labeled and other artificial substrates, (mechanism-based) enzyme inhibitors, cross-linking probes or artificial membrane models. In this review we provide an overview over chemical biology tools that have been used to gain more insight into the molecular basis of sphingolipid-related biology. Many of these tools are still of high relevance for the investigation of current sphingolipid-related questions, others may stimulate the tailoring of novel probes suitable to address recent and future issues in the field. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Tools to study lipid functions.

Uptake and metabolism of exogenous glycosphingolipids by cultured cells

Exogenous glycosphingolipids, especially gangliosides, are used to study transport and metabolism of their endogenous counterparts as well as their role in cell adhesion, cell recognition and signal transduction. Unlike monodispersed solutes, in aqueous media ganglioside molecules aggregate into micelles (or bilayer structures) with a very low critical micellar concentration. Upon addition to cells in culture, exogenous gangliosides bind to the cell surface in three operationally defined modes: loosely associated micelles removable by serum; tightly attached micelles removable by proteases such as trypsin; and ganglioside molecules inserted into the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane. As shown by a biotin-labeled derivative of the ganglioside GM1 these inserted molecules are endocytosed and transported to intralysosomal membranes for catabolism. The benefit from using (partially) nondegradable as well as semi-truncated glycosphingolipids in transport studies is discussed.