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Significance of glycosphingolipid fatty acid chain length on membrane microdomain‐mediated signal transduction
Author(s) -
Iwabuchi Kazuhisa,
Nakayama Hitoshi,
Iwahara Chihiro,
Takamori Kenji
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2009.10.043
Subject(s) - glycosphingolipid , lactosylceramide , lyn , lipid microdomain , fatty acid , microbiology and biotechnology , membrane , biochemistry , biology , chemistry , proto oncogene tyrosine protein kinase src , signal transduction , glycolipid
Lactosylceramide (LacCer), a neutral glycosphingolipid, is abundantly expressed on human neutrophils, and specifically recognizes several pathogenic microorganisms. LacCer forms membrane microdomains coupled with the Src family kinase Lyn on the plasma membrane, and ligand binding to LacCer activates Lyn, resulting in neutrophil functions. In contrast, neutrophilic differentiated HL‐60 cells do not have Lyn‐associated LacCer‐enriched microdomains and lack LacCer‐mediated functions. In neutrophil plasma membranes, the very long fatty acid C24:0 and C24:1 chains are the main components of LacCer, whereas plasma membrane of D‐HL‐60 cells mainly includes C16‐LacCer species. Here, we suggest that LacCer species containing very long fatty acid chains are indispensable for the association of Lyn with LacCer‐enriched microdomains and LacCer‐mediated functions.