Abstract
Complex lipids are components of cell membranes and are thought to play important roles in a variety of biological phenomena, for example extracellular recognition, cell-cell interaction, differentiation, oncogenesis and immunity. We set out to perform a systematic structural survey of invertebrate sphingolipids, which may be classified according to their components as either phosphosphingolipids or glycosphingolipids, and are found in Protostomia phyla, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Annelida, Aschelminthes, Tentaculata, Coelenterata etc. These sphingolipids have been found to contain quite different con-stituents from those of Deuterostomia phyla, e.g. 2-aminoethylphosphonic acid, N-methylaminoethylphosphonic acid (C-P compounds) and phosphoethanolamine in phosphosphingolipids, and mannose, glucuronic acid, sugar phosphates (galactose-6-phosphocholine, glucosamine-6-phosphoethanolamine, glucosamine-6-phosphocholine, glucose-6-N-methylaminoethylphosphonic acid and inositol-1-phosphate) as well as methyl sugars etc. in glycosphingolipids. This review describes studies on the structural biochemistry of sphingolipids in invertebrates, including : 1, Structural studies on phosphosphingolipids; 2, Structural studies on glycosphingolipids; 3, Immunochemical studies on phospho- and glycosphingolipids; and 4, Preparation and analytical method of sphingolipids.
