Palmitoylcarnitine modulates palmitoylation of proteins: implication for differentiation of neural cells.

[3H]Palmitic acid accumulates in neuroblastoma NB-2a cells, being incorporated in lipids (90%) and proteins (10%) fractions. Addition of palmitoylcarnitine, known to modulate activity of protein kinase C and to promote differentiation of neurons, was observed to decrease incorporation of palmitic acid to sphingomyelin, phosphatidylserine, and phosphatidylcholine, with a parallel increase of palmitic acid bound to proteins through a thioester bond (palmitoylation). In the presence of palmitoylcarnitine, one of the palmitoylated proteins expressed at growing neural cones, GAP-43, was observed to co-localize with caveolin-1, what was correlated with the beginning of differentiation. A new function of palmitoylcarnitine in controlling palmitoylation of proteins and their targeting to cholesterol-rich domains has been proposed.