Abstract Human fibroblasts from normal subjects and Niemann-Pick A (NPA) disease patients were fed with two labeled metabolic precursors of sphingomyelin (SM),[3 H] choline and photoactivable sphingosine, that entered into the biosynthetic pathway allowing the synthesis of radioactive phosphatidylcholine and SM, and of radioactive and photoactivable SM ([3 H] SM-N 3). Detergent resistant membrane (DRM) fractions prepared from normal ...