Dihydroceramide was highly elevated by the fumonisin B₁ and desipramine in Sphingomonas chungbukensis

The sphingolipid metabolites act as lipid mediator for cell proliferation and apoptosis in mammalian cells. In bacteria, sphingolipid metabolism remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sphingolipid metabolism is potential target for fumonisin B₁(FB₁) and desipramine in Sphingomonas chungbukensis, Gram-negative bacteria, by comparing the intracellular contents of bacterial sphingolipids with ones of HIT-T15 β-cells, hamster pancreatic cells. The concentrations of ceramide and dihydroceramide were 18.0 ± 12.0 and 0.025 ± 0.018 nmol/mg protein, respectively, in HIT-T15 cells. However, the concentrations of ceramide and dihydroceramide in the bacterial culture were 2.0 ± 1.2 and 10.6 ± 5.5 nmol/mg protein, respectively. FB₁ decreased the level of ceramide from 18.0 to 3.8 nmol/mg protein in HIT-T15 β-cells. However, dihydroceramide content in FB₁-treated HIT-T15 cells was slightly decreased compared with the control culture. When S. chungbukensis was treated with either FB₁ or desipramine, dihydroceramide level was increased by 5- and 4-fold, respectively, compared with the control bacteria. These results indicate that FB₁ and desipramine may act as an activator in bacterial sphingolipid biosynthetic pathway, and bacterial sphingolipid metabolism pathway appears to be different from the pathway of mammalian cells.