Functional role of phospholipids in the nuclear events

This review presents the structural and functional role of phospholipids in chromatin and nuclear matrix as well as the difference in composition and turnover compared to those present in the nuclear membrane. Nuclei have a very active lipid metabolism which seems to play an important role in the transduction of the signals to the genome in response to agonists acting at the plasma membrane level. The evidence on the presence of phospholipid-calcium-dependent protein kinase C (PKC) in nuclei and enzymes of phospholipids turnover is given. Protein kinase C interacts with nuclear phosphomositol and sphingomyelin cycles products. This fact evidences about possibility that signal transduction events could also occur at the nuclear level during induction of cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.