Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
FEBS Lett. 2010 May 17;584(10):2128-34. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2010.02.032. Epub 2010 Feb 14.
Mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization to proteins, an irreversible step in apoptosis by which critical proteins are released, is tightly regulated by Bcl-2 family proteins. The exact nature of the release pathway is still undefined. Ceramide is an important sphingolipid, involved in various cellular processes including apoptosis. Here we describe the structural properties of ceramide channels and their regulation by the anti-apoptotic and pro-apoptotic proteins of the Bcl-2 family. The evolutionarily conserved regulation of ceramide channels by Bcl-2 family proteins, consistent with their role in apoptosis, lends credibility to the notion that ceramide channels constitute the protein release pathway.
线粒体外膜对蛋白质的通透性是细胞凋亡过程中的一个不可逆步骤，在此过程中关键蛋白被释放出来，这一过程受到 Bcl-2 家族蛋白的严格调控。蛋白质释放的途径的确切性质仍未确定。神经酰胺是一种重要的鞘脂类物质，参与包括细胞凋亡在内的各种细胞过程。本文描述了神经酰胺通道的结构特性及其受 Bcl-2 家族抗凋亡和促凋亡蛋白的调控。Bcl-2 家族蛋白对神经酰胺通道的进化保守调控作用与其在细胞凋亡中的作用一致，这使得神经酰胺通道构成蛋白释放途径的观点更具可信度。
