Alkaline sphingomyelinase: An old enzyme with novel implications.
Alkaline sphingomyelinase (alk-SMase) is present in the intestinal tract and additionally human bile. It hydrolyses sphingomyelin in both intestinal lumen and the mucosal membrane in a specific bile salt dependent manner. The enzyme was discovered 36 years ago but got real attention only in the last decade, when sphingomyelin metabolism was realized to be a source of multiple lipid messengers, and