The sphingomyelin-ceramide signaling pathway is involved in oxidized low density lipoprotein-induced cell proliferation.

Development of atherosclerosis is believed to involve proliferation of smooth muscle cells (SMC). Our laboratory previously demonstrated that the growth of bovine aortic SMC was stimulated by mildly oxidized low density lipoproteins (oxLDL) and that the mitogenic effect of oxLDL was greater than that induced by native LDL (Augé, N., Pieraggi, M. T., Thiers, J. C., Nègre-Salvayre, A., and Salvayre R.(1995) Biochem. J. 309, 1015-1020). Since the lipid mediator ceramide has been described to be proliferative, the present work aimed at studying the potential involvement of the so-called sphingomyelin-ceramide pathway in the signal transduction cascade induced by oxLDL. Incubation of SMC with UV-oxidized LDL induced sphingomyelin hydrolysis (32%), which peaked at 60 min and was accompanied by a concomitant increase of intracellular ceramide level. The effect of oxidized LDL on sphingomyelin turnover exhibited the same LDL dose dependence as their mitogenic effect. Exogenous bacterial sphingomyelinase induced sphingomyelin hydrolysis and ceramide generation and also stimulated cell growth, in contrast to exogenous phospholipases A2, C, or D. This mitogenic effect was reproduced by incubating the cells with the cell-permeant ceramides, N-acetyl- and N-hexanoylsphingosines. Altogether, these data strongly suggest for the first time that activation of the sphingomyelin-ceramide pathway may play a pivotal role in the oxLDL-induced SMC proliferation and atherogenesis.