Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a bioactive sphingolipid that mediates a wide array of biologic effects through its interaction with a family of five G protein-coupled receptors. Cytokines and growth factors interact with this signaling pathway in a variety of ways, including both activation and regulation of the expression of the enzymes that regulate synthesis and degradation of S1P. Not only do many growth factors and cytokines stimulate S1P production, leading to transactivation of S1P receptors, ligation of S1P receptors by S1P can also transactivate growth factor tyrosine kinase receptors and stimulate growth factor and cytokine signaling cascades. This review discusses the mechanisms involved in cross-talk between S1P, cytokines, and growth factors and the impact of that cross-talk on cell signaling and cell biology. The biological effects of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) overlap with those of a wide array of cytokines and growth factors. There is increasing evidence that this overlap in functions relates to both the ability of growth factors and cytokines to transactivate S1P signaling cascades as well as the ability of S1P to transactivate growth factor and cytokine signaling cascades. This mutual pathway cross-talk affects cell growth, differentiation, and movement and is integral to a variety of normal processes as well as disease processes, including inflammation and cancer. This review will focus on the ways in which S1P and growth factor or cytokine signaling pathways interact. S1P S1P is a potent bioactive lipid that regulates processes that are essential to cellular homeostasis, including cell viability, differentiation, and motility (1-3). Most of its bestcharacterized actions are mediated through a family of five G protein-coupled receptors, (GPCRs) S1P 1-5 (4, 5). The S1P receptors couple to a variety of G proteins, allowing them to mediate many different biologic responses (6, 7).One mechanism for cross-talk between cytokine or growth factor pathways and S1P signaling involves regulation of S1P metabolism. Sphingolipid metabolism was the focus of a recent excellent review (3) and will not be discussed in detail here. Cellular levels of S1P are regulated by the activities of the enzymes that are responsible for its synthesis and degradation. In mammalian cells, two sphingosine kinases, SphK1 and SphK2, catalyze the phosphorylation of sphingosine to generate S1P (8). Although both isozymes phosphorylate sphingosine, they differ in their enzymatic properties, cellular location, and biological roles (9). SphK1 is generally regarded as providing pro-survival signals, whereas SphK2, at least when overexpressed, induces apoptosis in several cell types (10). S1P is degraded to sphingosine by specific S1P phosphatases (11) or cleaved to palmitaldehyde and phosphoethanolamine by S1P lyase (12). Thus, it is clear that S1P levels can potentially be altered by stimuli that affect activity or expression of any of these enzymes. However, the majority of cytokines and growth factors that coopt regu...