Determination of sphingosine kinase activity for cellular signaling studies.

Regulation of sphingosine and sphingosine-1-phosphate concentrations is of growing interest due to their importance in cellular signal transduction. Furthermore, new pharmaceutical agents moderating the intracellular and extracellular levels of sphingosine metabolites are showing promise in preclinical and clinical trials. In the present work, a quantitative assay relying on capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection was developed to measure the interconversion of sphingosine and sphingosine-1-phosphate.

Myristoyl-based transport of peptides into living cells.

Translocation of membrane-impermeant molecules to the interior of living cells is a necessity for many biochemical investigations. Myristoylation was studied as a means to introduce peptides into living cells. Uptake of a myristoylated, fluorescent peptide was efficient in the B lymphocyte cell line BA/F3.

Rapid sampling for single-cell analysis by capillary electrophoresis.

Single-cell analyses have found increasing importance in biological investigation. Recent technical advances have made it possible to perform chemical separations of cellular constituents at the level of the individual cell. In this chapter, a laser-based method for the rapid sampling of living cells for chemical analysis using capillary electrophoresis is described.