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Review
. 2010 May;62(5):347-56.
doi: 10.1002/iub.319.

Mammalian ceramide synthases

Michal Levy  1 , Anthony H Futerman
Affiliations
Review

Mammalian ceramide synthases

Michal Levy et al. IUBMB Life. 2010 May.

Abstract

In mammals, ceramide, a key intermediate in sphingolipid metabolism and an important signaling molecule, is synthesized by a family of six ceramide synthases (CerS), each of which synthesizes ceramides with distinct acyl chain lengths. There are a number of common biochemical features between the CerS, such as their catalytic mechanism, and their structure and intracellular localization. Different CerS also display remarkable differences in their biological properties, with each of them playing distinct roles in processes as diverse as cancer and tumor suppression, in the response to chemotherapeutic drugs, in apoptosis, and in neurodegenerative diseases.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Ceramide metabolism
Overview of the major metabolic pathways of ceramide; enzymes are shown in italics.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. The roles of CerS in synthesizing ceramides with different acyl chain lengths
Ceramides can differ in their acyl chain length, as shown in the figure, as well as in their in their degree of saturation and α-hydroxylation (7). Sphinganine is show in blue, the acyl chain in yellow, and the CerS that synthesizes each ceramide is shown in red.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. CerS mRNA expression in human tissues
The distibution is shown as a pie chart for each organ, with each CerS color-coded as in the legend. The data is based Ref. (27).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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