A personal journey with bioactive lipids

Abstract

The concept of lipids acting as signaling and regulatory molecules is now taken for granted. However 3-4 decades ago, this was a rather unthinkable proposition even though the "writing was on the wall" since at least the 1950s. Here, I summarize briefly key historical landmarks in the evolution of the field of bioactive lipids and then describe studies from my group over 3 decades, focusing on the contemporaneous development of understanding of bioactive sphingolipids.

Mass spectrometry imaging of biomarker lipids for phagocytosis and signalling during focal cerebral ischaemia

“…This may be due to the localization of sphingomyelin mainly in the extracellular leaflet of the plasma membrane as well as to the concomitant generation of ceramide (seen both as sodium and potassium adducts of Cer(d18:1/18:0)) from sphingomyelin. This generation of ceramide during cell death of ischaemia is well-established45 also in MSI studies141546. However, we also observed an increased abundance of both ceramide-1-phosphate (CerP(d18:1/16:0)) and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) in the ischaemic area at day 7, with CerP(18:1/16:0) having high abundance in the whole ischaemic area whereas S1P was faintly seen in the periphery of the ischaemic area.…”