• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2003.10b
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• pp.104.2-104.2
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• 2003

Cadmium is an environmental pollutant and exhibits nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity and immunotoxicity. Recently, cadmium was found to induce DNA fragmentation, a biochemical hallmark of apoptosis, in cultured renal cells, hepatocytes and neuroblastoma cell. Therefore, the various toxicities of cadmium are thought to be caused by the induction of apoptosis. Lipids-derived pro-apoptotic ceramide has emerged as an important intracellular signaling molecule that mediates diverse cellular effects, of which programmed cell death, or apoptosis, has attracted significant interest. (omitted)