Does ceramide play a role in neural cell apoptosis?

Ceramide is a lipid second messenger, that is generated in response to stim ulation of the cell death pathways by a number of ligands binding to surfac e receptors, growth factor withdrawal, treatment with chemotherapeutic agen ts, or high doses of ionizing radiation or oxidizing agents. Depending on t he target cell, ceramide induces diverse biological responses including apo ptosis, cell-cycle arrest, differentiation, and also proliferation. In this review we consider the evidence for its role in apoptosis in cells of the nervous system. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.