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Letter

Nature Cell Biology 5, 803–811 (1 September 2003) | doi:10.1038/ncb1037

Sphingosylphosphorylcholine regulates keratin network architecture and visco-elastic properties of human cancer cells

Michael Beil , Alexandre Micoulet , G|[ouml]|tz von Wichert , Stephan Paschke , Paul Walther , M. Bishr Omary , Paul P. Van Veldhoven , Ulrike Gern , Elke Wolff-Hieber , Juliane Eggermann , Johannes Waltenberger , Guido Adler , Joachim Spatz & Thomas Seufferlein

Sphingosylphosphorylcholine (SPC) is a naturally occurring bioactive lipid that is present in high density lipoproteins (HDL) particles and found at increased levels in blood and malignant ascites of patients with ovarian cancer. Here, we show that incubation of human epithelial tumour cells with SPC induces a perinuclear reorganization of intact keratin 8–18 filaments.