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(Circulation Research. 2008;103:231.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Sphingosine-1-Phosphate in the Regulation of Vascular Tone

A Finely Tuned Integration System of S1P Sources, Receptors, and Vascular Responsiveness

Bodo Levkau

From the Institute of Pathophysiology, University Hospital Essen, Germany.

Correspondence to Bodo Levkau, Institute of Pathophysiology, University Hospital Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, 45122 Essen, Germany. E-mail levkau@uni-essen.de

See related article, pages 315–324

Key Words: sphingosine-1-phosphate • smooth muscle cells • endothelium • vasodilation • vasoconstriction

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a biologically active lysophospholipid that plays an important role in the physiology of the cardiovascular, nervous and immune systems.¹ Red blood cells are the major source of plasma S1P, where it mainly associates with High-density lipoproteins (HDL). There is a steep concentration gradient of S1P between plasma and the interstitial compartment, with S1P being present in the low micromolar range in plasma and at least 1 order of magnitude lower in the interstitial fluid. S1P exerts numerous effects on the vascular cells regulating arterial tone—the smooth muscle cell and the endothelial cell —via a set of 5 cognate G protein–coupled receptors (S1P_{1 to 5}) expressed differentially in the different cell types.² In addition, S1P has negative effects on cardiac rate, contractility, and output. All of this makes S1P a candidate for a bona fide modulator of vascular tone.

Direct vasoactive effects of S1P have been studied both in isolated vessel strips ex vivo and different vascular territories in vivo.² The consensus from all these studies is that S1P induces vasoconstriction in resistance vessels such as mesenteric, cerebral, and coronary arteries but has little or no effect on conduit vessels such as aorta, carotid, and femoral arteries. This implies S1P as a player in the control of blood flow in the periphery. However, these studies have been all performed by using exogenously added S1P, making it difficult to draw conclusions on the role of endogenous S1P sources in the homoeostatic regulation of resistance artery tone. In a previous study, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Role of Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Phosphohydrolase 1 in the Regulation of Resistance Artery Tone

Bernhard Friedrich Peter, Darcy Lidington, Aki Harada, Hanno Jörn Bolz, Lukas Vogel, Scott Heximer, Sarah Spiegel, Ulrich Pohl, and Steffen-Sebastian Bolz
Circ. Res. 2008 103: 315-324. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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