Sphingosine is a characteristic structural unit of many sphingolipids such as ceramides, gangliosides, globosides, sulfatides, sphingomyelin, and others.1 It is most abundant in nervous tissue and cell membranes. Sphingosine with an 18-carbon chain and a double bond at carbon 4 is the most abundant sphingosine in animal tissues but D-erythro-C14-sphingosine is the most common long chain base (LCB) in some organisms such as Drosophila. This shorter LCB is considerably less hydrophobic which could significantly change the process of signal transduction.2 D-erythro-C14-sphingosine has recently been found to act as a germination-accelerating factor in silkworms with much greater activity than its shorter or longer homologues.3 Lysosphingolipids inhibit protein kinase C activity resulting in the pathogenesis of sphingolipidoses such as Krabbe's disease and Gaucher's disease. Sphingosine can be phosphorylated via two kinases to form sphingosine-1-phosphate, which has important signaling functions. While sphingosines and ceramides can induce apoptosis,4 sphingosine-1-phosphate can promote cell survival or proliferation. Sphingosine has been shown to cause an increase in the cytoplasmic calcium level of cells.
