Yang Fang, Chen Guoxun
School of Laboratory Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China.
Department of Nutrition, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States.
Front Nutr. 2022 Oct 19;9:1002574. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.1002574. eCollection 2022.
Sphingolipids are common structural components of cell membranes and are crucial for cell functions in physiological and pathophysiological conditions. Sphingomyelin and its metabolites, such as sphingoid bases, ceramide, ceramide-1-phosphate, and sphingosine-1-phosphate, play signaling roles in the regulation of human health. The diverse structures of sphingolipids elicit various functions in cellular membranes and signal transduction, which may affect cell growth, differentiation, apoptosis, and maintain biological activities. As nutrients, dietary sphingomyelin and its metabolites have wide applications in the food and pharmaceutical industry. In this review, we summarized the distribution, classifications, structures, digestion, absorption and metabolic pathways of sphingolipids, and discussed the nutritional functioning of sphingomyelin in chronic metabolic diseases. The possible implications of dietary sphingomyelin in the modern food preparations including dairy products and infant formula, skin improvement, delivery system and oil organogels are also evaluated. The production of endogenous sphingomyelin is linked to pathological changes in obesity, diabetes, and atherosclerosis. However, dietary supplementations of sphingomyelin and its metabolites have been shown to maintain cholesterol homeostasis and lipid metabolism, and to prevent or treat these diseases. This seemly paradoxical phenomenon shows that dietary sphingomyelin and its metabolites are candidates for food additives and functional food development for the prevention and treatment of chronic metabolic diseases in humans.
鞘脂是细胞膜常见的结构成分，在生理和病理生理条件下对细胞功能至关重要。鞘磷脂及其代谢产物，如鞘氨醇碱、神经酰胺、神经酰胺-1-磷酸和鞘氨醇-1-磷酸，在人类健康调节中发挥信号传导作用。鞘脂的多样结构在细胞膜和信号转导中引发各种功能，这可能影响细胞生长、分化、凋亡并维持生物活性。作为营养物质，膳食鞘磷脂及其代谢产物在食品和制药行业有广泛应用。在本综述中，我们总结了鞘脂的分布、分类、结构、消化、吸收和代谢途径，并讨论了鞘磷脂在慢性代谢疾病中的营养功能。还评估了膳食鞘磷脂在包括乳制品和婴儿配方奶粉在内的现代食品制剂、皮肤改善、递送系统和油基有机凝胶中的潜在影响。内源性鞘磷脂的产生与肥胖、糖尿病和动脉粥样硬化的病理变化有关。然而，膳食补充鞘磷脂及其代谢产物已被证明可维持胆固醇稳态和脂质代谢，并预防或治疗这些疾病。这种看似矛盾的现象表明，膳食鞘磷脂及其代谢产物是用于预防和治疗人类慢性代谢疾病的食品添加剂和功能性食品开发的候选物。
