D-erythro-N,N-dimethylsphingosine inhibits bFGF-induced proliferation of cerebral, aortic and coronary smooth muscle cells.
The role of sphingosine kinase (SphK) on basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)-induced proliferation of cerebral, aortic and coronary smooth muscle cells (SMC) was addressed using D-erythro-N,N-dimethylsphingosine (DMS), an inhibitor of SphK which blocks conversion of sphingosine to sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P). DMS concentration-dependently reduced the bFGF-induced proliferation of rat cerebral