Sphingomyelin (SM) is a constituent of cellular membranes, while ceramides (Cer) produced from SM on plasma membranes serve as a lipid mediator that regulates cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. In the skin, SM also is a precursor of Cer, an important constituent of epidermal permeability barrier. We investigated the role of epidermal SM synthase (SMS)2, an isoform of SMS, which modulates SM and Cer levels on plasma membranes. Although SMS2-knockout (SMS2-KO) mice were not neonatal lethal, an ichthyotic phenotype with epidermal hyperplasia and hyperkeratosis was evident at birth, which persisted until 2 weeks of age. These mice showed abnormal lamellar body morphology and secretion, and abnormal extracellular lamellar membranes in the stratum corneum. These abnormalities were no longer evident by 4 weeks of age in SMS2-KO mice. Our study suggests that (1) exposure to a dry terrestrial environment initiates compensatory responses, thereby normalizing epidermal ichthyotic abnormalities and (2) that a nonlethal gene abnormality can cause an ichthyotic skin phenotype.
The innate immune element, cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide (CAMP), is a vital antimicrobial peptide needed for the formation of the antimicrobial skin barrier. We recently identified a novel endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-mediated sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P)-dependent mechanism of CAMP synthesis. Interestingly, in this study, we found that S1P synthesized by an isoform of sphingosine kinase (SPHK), SPHK1, serves as a signal for CAMP synthesis and conversely, another isoform (SPHK2) likely has a suppressor role in CAMP production. CAMP production is increased during epidermal differentiation and enriched in the stratum corneum. Pertinently, prior studies showed that physiological ER stress is essential for normal epidermal differentiation. We here investigated how CAMP production is increased during epidermal differentiation. We found that 1) increased ER stress is evident in differentiated cultured keratinocytes; 2) increases in both CAMP and S1P production depend upon differentiation level of keratinocyte (proliferatedwt, but not dominant negative SPHK2 suppresses CAMP production in both proliferated and differentiated KC. Our current study suggests that both an increase in SPHK1 and a decrease in SPHK2 expression coordinately stimulate CAMP production during epidermal differentiation.
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