The mechanism of absorption of sphingosine was studied in human intestinal epithelial cells Caco-2 and HT-29-D4. The experiments were performed below the critical micellar concentration of sphingosine which was evaluated to 6 microM by surface tension measurements. [3H]Sphingosine uptake was not inhibited by Na+-free conditions, ATP depletion, L-cycloserine or methyl-beta-cyclodextrin, consistent with a passive diffusion mechanism independent of lipid raft integrity. Molecular modeling studies suggested that sphingosine can adopt two distinct conformations: a high-energy "snake-like" conformer in water and an extended low-energy conformer in lipid phases. We propose that the energy stored in the compressed snake-like conformer is transformed into kinetic energy, allowing: (i) the motion of sphingosine through the unstirred water layer bathing the mucosal enterocyte surface, and (ii) its insertion into the enterocyte brush border membrane. Dietary lipids that stabilized the extended sphingosine conformer in mixed micelles (e.g., cholesterol and sphingomyelin) induced a marked inhibition of sphingosine absorption.