Regulation of alkaline ceramidase activity by the c-Src-mediated pathway.

Ceramidase hydrolyzes ceramide to fatty acids and sphingosine, and sphingosine is then converted to sphingosine-1-phosphate. Ceramide and sphingosine-1-phosphate act as signaling molecules. Although stimuli coupling to protein kinases-dependent systems have been shown to regulate ceramidase activity, the exact role of c-Src-mediated signal has not been elucidated. We examined the effects of the downregulation of c-Src activity and c-Src overexpression on ceramidase activity in cells. In A549, CHO, and HeLa cells labeled with a fluorescent ceramide, 4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole-labeled C6-ceramide (NBD-ceramide), the downregulation of c-Src by c-Src-shRNA and pharmacological inhibitors including SU6656 decreased levels of NBD-caproic acid. The overexpression of c-Src increased NBD-caproic acid levels in CHO and HeLa cells. Similar results were obtained in Na3VO4-treated cells having higher NBD-caproic acid levels. The downregulation and overexpression of c-Src decreased and increased ceramidase activity, respectively, in the lysates of A549 cells at pH 8.8. The ceramidase sensitivity to substrates, pH, and Ca(2+) suggest that the c-Src- and SU6656-sensitive ceramidase is alkaline ceramidase (ACER), possibly Ca(2+)-activated ACER2. Serum starvation increased both ceramidase activity at pH 8.8 and expression of ACER2. Our data suggest that c-Src-mediated signal positively regulates ACER activity in a Ca(2+)-independent manner.

Activation of ceramidase and ceramide kinase by vanadate via a tyrosine kinase-mediated pathway.

Ceramide, a key molecule in the metabolism of sphingolipids, is converted by ceramidase to sphingosine, and phosphorylated by ceramide kinase to form ceramide-1-phosphate (C1P). In this study, we improved on a method of thin-layer chromatography using a fluorescent ceramide, 4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole-labeled C6-ceramide (NBD-ceramide) by adding another step for separation of extracted ceramide metabolites by lipophilicity, and determined levels of C1P, caproic acid, sphingomyelin, and glucosylceramide simultaneously. Also we found that 1) treatment of NBD-ceramide-labeled cells (human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells and Chinese hamster ovary cells) with Na(3)VO(4) increased the amount of NBD-C1P formed within 30 min, 2) the treatment increased production of NBD-caproic acid, a counterpart of sphingosine, by ceramidase within 2 h, 3) expression of ceramide kinase enhanced the Na(3)VO(4)-induced formation of NBD-C1P, and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (herbimycin and genistein) decreased the response, 4) the production of NBD-caproic acid in A549 cells was inhibited by genistein, and 5) the responses for 2 h after Na(3)VO(4) treatment were accompanied by a decrease in the production of NBD-sphingomyelin, not a loss of NBD-ceramide. The improved thin-layer chromatography method was useful for the simultaneous determination of enzymatic activities for ceramide metabolism in cells.