Melanoma Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Melanoma, including details on identification, causes, prevention, treatment.

Nuclear sphingomyelin-synthase and protein kinase C delta in melanoma cells.

Albi E, La Porta CA, Cataldi S, Magni MV

Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Physiopathology, Policlinico Monteluce, University of Perugia, Italy.

The aim of this research is to study the influence of protein kinase C delta on the nuclear phospholipids metabolism. Murine and human melanoma cells, in which overexpression of protein kinase delta was induced, were used. After purification of the nuclei, the phosphatidylcholine-dependent phospholipase C, sphingomyelin-synthase, and sphingomyelinase activities were measured. The results showed that the nuclear sphingomyelin-synthase activity increased and sphingomyelinase activity decreased in the protein kinase C delta overexpressive cells with respect to the controls. As a consequence, the ceramide pool decreased and diacylglycerol pool increased; this effect was not due to the phosphatidylcholine-dependent phospholipase C activity that did not change. The inhibition of sphingomyelinase could be due to protein kinase C delta as well as to existence of a sort of nuclear self-regulation between sphingomyelin-synthase and sphingomyelinase. The possible role of nuclear sphingomyelin-synthase in cell proliferation is discussed.

Published 9 June 2005 in Arch Biochem Biophys, 438(2): 156-61.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Melanoma Research Today. All Rights Reserved.