Park Joo-Won, Park Woo-Jae, Futerman Anthony H
Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 158-710, South Korea.
Department of Biological Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel; Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Gachon University, Incheon 406-799, South Korea.
Biochim Biophys Acta. 2014 May;1841(5):671-81. doi: 10.1016/j.bbalip.2013.08.019. Epub 2013 Sep 8.
Ceramide is located at a key hub in the sphingolipid metabolic pathway and also acts as an important cellular signaling molecule. Ceramide contains one acyl chain which is attached to a sphingoid long chain base via an amide bond, with the acyl chain varying in length and degree of saturation. The identification of a family of six mammalian ceramide synthases (CerS) that synthesize ceramide with distinct acyl chains, has led to significant advances in our understanding of ceramide biology, including further delineation of the role of ceramide in various pathophysiologies in both mice and humans. Since ceramides, and the complex sphingolipids generated from ceramide, are implicated in disease, the CerS might potentially be novel targets for therapeutic intervention in the diseases in which the ceramide acyl chain length is altered. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled New Frontiers in Sphingolipid Biology.
神经酰胺位于鞘脂代谢途径的关键枢纽，也是一种重要的细胞信号分子。神经酰胺含有一条酰基链，该酰基链通过酰胺键连接到一个鞘氨醇长链碱基上，酰基链的长度和饱和度各不相同。鉴定出一个由六种哺乳动物神经酰胺合酶（CerS）组成的家族，它们能合成具有不同酰基链的神经酰胺，这使得我们对神经酰胺生物学的理解取得了重大进展，包括进一步阐明了神经酰胺在小鼠和人类各种病理生理学中的作用。由于神经酰胺以及由神经酰胺产生的复杂鞘脂与疾病有关，因此在神经酰胺酰基链长度发生改变的疾病中，CerS可能是治疗干预的新靶点。本文是名为“鞘脂生物学新前沿”的特刊的一部分。
