ceramide

^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Introduction

N-acyl sphingosine; Putative mediator of TNF-alpha, vitamin D3, IFN-gamma, IL-1 & NGF signals. Ceramide in turn regulates PLC-zeta, an unidentified serine/threonine protein phosphatase & an unidentified membrane-associated proline-directed protein kinase. Ceramide* may also activate phospholipase A2 & cyclo- oxygenase-2^[2]^[3] & has been implicated in apoptosis^[2]. The role of ceramide in transducing the signal of NGF would suggest a potentiating rather than mediating role in apoptosis, because NGF does not induce apoptosis. Ceramide inhibits phospholipase-D^[2].

↑ Liscovitch M. Crosstalk among multiple signal-activated phospholipases. Trends Biochem Sci. 1992 Oct;17(10):393-9. Review. PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1455508
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 Hannun YA, Obeid LM. Ceramide: an intracellular signal for apoptosis. Trends Biochem Sci. 1995 Feb;20(2):73-7. Review. PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7701566
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Wu D, Meydani SN. Mechanism of age-associated up-regulation in macrophage PGE2 synthesis. Brain Behav Immun. 2004 Nov;18(6):487-94. Review. PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15331118
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Pettus BJ, Kitatani K, Chalfant CE, Taha TA, Kawamori T, Bielawski J, Obeid L, Hannun YA. The Coordination of Prostaglandin E2 production by sphingosine- 1-phosphate and ceramide-1- phosphate. Mol Pharmacol. 2005 May 17; [Epub ahead of print] PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15900018