Regulation of Immune Cell Migration by Sphingosine-1-Phosphate

Sphingosine-1-phosphate [S1P] is a potent bioactive sphingolipid molecule. In response to a stimulus, S1P is produced intracellularly by the action of two sphingosine kinases, and then it is exported to the extracellular environment or acts as an intracellular second messenger. S1P binds to its cognate G-protein coupled receptors, which are known as S1P receptors. There are five S1P receptors that have been identified in vertebrates. By activating S1P receptors, S1P controls a variety of physiological and pathological processes including cell migration, angiogenesis, vascular maturation, inflammation, and invasion, metastasis, and chemoresistance in cancer. S1P has emerged as a critical regulator of leukocyte migration and plays a central role in lymphocyte egress from the thymus and secondary lymphoid organs. In the current review article, we summarize the current understanding of the emigration of lymphocytes and other leukocytes from bone marrow, thymus and secondary lymphoid organs to the circulation, as well as the clinical implications of modulating the activity of the major S1P receptor, S1PR1. *Corresponding author: Julie D Saba, 5700 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA 94609, USA, Tel: 510-450-7690, Fax: 510-450-7910; E-mail: [email protected] Received December 14, 2015; Accepted December 28, 2015; Published December 31, 2015 Citation: Kumar A, Saba JB (2015) Regulation of Immune Cell Migration by Sphingosine-1-Phosphate. Cell Mol Biol 61: 121. doi: 10.4172/1165-158X.1000121 Copyright: © 2015 Kumar A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.