Sphingosines
Sphingoid bases such as sphingosine, dihydrosphingosine, and phytosphingosine are the characteristic structural units of sphingolipids.1,2 Sphingolipids are widely distributed in animal and plant tissues, particularly in cell membranes where they serve numerous vital cellular functions. The sphingoid bases are long chain aliphatic amines, containing two or three hydroxyl groups. In animal tissues, the most abundant base is sphingosine with a C18 aliphatic chain containing a trans-4-double bond. The saturated analogue of sphingosine is dihydrosphingosine (or sphinganine). In plants, the common long chain base is the 4-hydroxy, saturated base phytosphingosine. Sphingosines can be phosphorylated to make the potent signaling lipid sphingosine-1-phosphate. Matreya offers several isomers of sphingosine as well as a number of sphingosines with various chain lengths, deuterium labels, and fluorescence probes.
References:
- Merrill, Jr. "De Novo Sphingolipid Biosynthesis: A Necessary, but Dangerous, Pathway" The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Vol. 277(29) pp. 25843-25846, 2002
- J. Shayman "Sphingolipids" Kidney International, Vol. 58 pp. 11-26, 2000