Endocrine Abstracts

Ceramide (Cer) and sphingomyelin (SM) belong to a family of sphingolipids (SLs). Both SLs are mixtures of many species, differed in length and saturation of the fatty acid chain. Cer and SM are important components of the plasma membrane. In addition, Cer is a cellular second messenger, mediating apoptosis. The altered profiles of blood plasma/serum SLs were found in many pathologies. Interestingly, circulating SLs were proposed to be the early predictors of Alzheimer disease....