Enhancement of immune proteins expression in skin mucus of Japanese flounder Paralicthys olivaceus upon feeding a diet supplemented with high concentration of ascorbic acid.

To search immune defense proteins in skin mucus of Japanese flounder fed with a diet containing high concentration of ascorbic acid, we carried out 2D-PAGE and compared the resolved pattern of proteins between control group that fed commercial diet and ascorbic acid supplemented group (AsA group) fed a diet supplemented with high concentration of ascorbic acid (2,000 mg/kg) for 7 days. The results revealed that there were many proteins exhibited distinct increase in AsA group. Among them, 6 regions that showed a dramatic elevation were chosen for protein identification using LC-MS/MS analysis and Mascot database search. Six proteins were identified, i.e. serotransferrin (Sero), transferrin (Trans), warm temperature acclimation-related 65 kDa protein (Wap65), complement component c3 (C3), hemoglobin beta-A chain (Hbß) and apolipoprotein A-1 (Apo). Quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that the mRNA level of Hbß in epidermis of AsA group gave much higher increase (11.6 folds) than control group; the levels of Sero/Trans, Wap65, C3 and Apo showed no apparent difference between the two groups. The mRNA levels of wap65 and c3 in the liver and Apo in the kidney of AsA group exhibited significant increase in comparison to control group. In the case of secreted immunoglobulin M (IgM) and lysozyme (lyz), no difference of the mRNA levels of IgM in epidermis, gill, kidney, spleen and intestine, and lyz in epidermis, gill, spleen and intestine, was observed. The results of in situ hybridization confirmed the elevation of Hbß mRNA level in the epidermis tissue of AsA group. Our present study provided additional evidence showing the effectiveness of AsA in activating innate immune defense system in skin mucosal tissue of fish.

Thalidomide-induced antiangiogenic action is mediated by ceramide through depletion of VEGF receptors, and is antagonized by sphingosine-1-phosphate.

Thalidomide, which is clinically recognized as an efficient therapeutic agent for multiple myeloma, has been thought to exert antiangiogenic action through an unknown mechanism. We here show a novel mechanism of thalidomide-induced antiangiogenesis in zebrafish embryos. Thalidomide induces the defect of major blood vessels, which is demonstrated by their morphologic loss and confirmed by the depletion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors such as neuropilin-1 and Flk-1. Transient increase of ceramide content through activation of neutral sphingomyelinase (nSMase) precedes thalidomide-induced vascular defect in the embryos. Synthetic cell permeable ceramide, N-acetylsphingosine (C2-ceramide) inhibits embryonic angiogenesis as well as thalidomide. The blockade of ceramide generation by antisense morpholino oligonucleotides for nSMase prevents thalidomide-induced ceramide generation and vascular defect. In contrast to ceramide, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) inhibits nSMase-dependent ceramide generation and restores thalidomide-induced embryonic vascular defect with an increase of expression of VEGF receptors. In human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), thalidomide-induced inhibition of cell growth, generation of ceramide through nSMase, and depletion of VEGF receptors are restored to the control levels by pretreatment with S1P. These results suggest that thalidomide-induced antiangiogenic action is regulated by the balance between ceramide and S1P signal.

Possible role of ceramide as an indicator of chemoresistance: decrease of the ceramide content via activation of glucosylceramide synthase and sphingomyelin synthase in chemoresistant leukemia.

We investigated the possibility of the proapoptotic lipid ceramide as an indicator of chemoresistance in leukemia. Doxorubicin (DOX) increased the ceramide level and apoptosis in drug-sensitive HL-60 cells but not in drug-resistant HL-60/ADR cells, under the condition that the uptake of DOX was not different between the two cell lines. In addition, exogenous N-acetylsphingosine (C2-ceramide) enhanced DOX-induced apoptosis in HL-60/ADR cells without affecting the expression of multidrug resistant-1 protein (MDR 1) and the uptake of DOX. A lower level of ceramide with higher activities of glucosylceramide synthase (GCS) and sphingomyelin synthase (SMS) was detected in HL-60/ADR cells than in HL-60 cells. In contrast, HL-60/GCS cells, overexpressing GCS, significantly inhibited DOX-induced ceramide increase and apoptosis. These observations suggest the involvement of ceramide regulation in drug resistance of leukemia cells. In vivo, the level of ceramide was lower in chemoresistant leukemia patients (6.4 +/- 1.8 pmol/nmol phosphate; n = 14) than in chemosensitive patients (9.5 +/- 2.7 pmol/nmol phosphate; n = 9), and the activities of GCS and SMS were more than 2-fold higher in chemoresistant leukemia cells than in chemosensitive cells. MDR-1 protein was faintly expressed in one of four chemoresistant patients, but Bcl-2 were clearly detected in four patients. Therefore, it is suggested that a decrease of the ceramide level via activation of GCS and SMS is associated with the chemoresistant condition in leukemia, probably in relation to Bcl-2 but not to MDR-1 expression.