The 55-kDa receptor for tumor necrosis factor (TR55) triggers multiple signaling cascades initiated by adapter proteins like TRADD and FAN. By use of the primary amine monodansylcadaverine (MDC), we addressed the functional role of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor internalization for intracellular signal distribution. We show that MDC does not prevent the interaction of the p55 TNF receptor (TR55) with FAN and TRADD. Furthermore, the activation of plasmamembrane-associated neutral sphingomyelinase activation as well as the stimulation of proline-directed protein kinases were not affected in MDC-treated cells. In contrast, activation of signaling enzymes that are linked to the "death domain" of TR55, like acid sphingomyelinase and c-Jun-N-terminal protein kinase as well as TNF signaling of apoptosis in U937 and L929 cells, are blocked in the presence of MDC. The results of our study suggest a role of TR55 internalization for the activation of select TR55 death domain signaling pathways including those leading to apoptosis.Tumor necrosis factor (TNF), 1 originally defined by its antitumoral activity, is now recognized as a pleiotropic cytokine exerting a wide variety of immunoregulatory activities (for review, see Refs. 1-3). TNF action is mediated by two types of cell surface receptors of 55 kDa (TR55) and 75 kDa (TR75) molecular masses, respectively. Both receptors mediate distinct TNF responses (4 -6). The majority of activities of soluble TNF appears to be mediated by TR55 (7-11). Like other cytokine receptors, the cytoplasmic domain of both TNF receptors lacks intrinsic enzymatic activities. The activation of intracellular signaling enzyme systems is initiated by a selective interplay between the cytoplasmic domain of the TNF receptors and a number of recently identified TNF receptor-associated proteins (see Ref. Results from numerous studies have revealed that TNF signaling further involves activation of downstream enzyme systems at multiple subcellular compartments such as the plasmamembrane, endosomes, mitochondria, the cytosol, and the nucleus (for review, see Refs. 11, 23, and 24). Membrane-associated enzyme systems transmitting TR55 signals include plasmamembrane-bound phospholipases such as phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipase C (25), which generates the lipid second messenger molecule 1,2-diacylglycerol and a N-SMase (9), producing ceramide by sphingomyelin hydrolysis. Ceramide generated at the plasmamembrane triggers activation of a 97-kDa ceramide-activated protein kinase (26), recently suggested to be identical with the "kinase suppressor of ras" (27). Ceramide-activated protein kinase belongs to a family of proline-directed protein kinases (PDPK) (9), including members of the mitogen-activated protein kinases (28). TNF signaling further involves intracellular membrane compartments like caveolae and endosomes harboring an acid SMase (A-SMase) (9,29,30). In mitochondria, TNF induces reactive oxygen species that are generated at the level of the oxidative phosphorylation complex III (31). T...