TY - JOUR AU - Sacket Santosh J AU - Im Dong-soon PY - 2016 TI - Discovery of sphingosine 1- O -methyltransferase in rat kidney and liver homogenates JF - Acta Pharmacologica Sinica; Vol 29, No 10 (October 2008): Acta Pharmacologica Sinica Y2 - 2016 KW - N2 - Aim: To characterize sphingosine methyltransferase in rat tissues. Methods: By using S-adenosyl-L-(methyl- 3 H) methionine, enzymatic activity was measured in the rat liver and kidney homogenates. Results: The optimum pH and reaction time for the enzyme assay were pH 7.8 and 1 h. ZnCl2 inhibited the activity, but not MgCl 2 , CaCl 2 , CoCl 2 , or NiCl 2 . In the kidney homogenate, enzymatic activity was detectable in the cytosol and all membrane fractions from the plasma membrane and other organelles; however, in the liver homogenate, enzymatic activity was detectable in all membrane fractions, but not in the cytosol. We also tested the enzymatic activity with structurally-modified sphingosine derivatives. Conclusion: We found sphingosine 1- O -methyltransferase activity in the rat liver and kidney homogenates. UR - http://www.chinaphar.com/article/view/6333