• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.125-137
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• 2013

Promising evidence suggests that amyloid beta peptide ($A{\beta}$), a key mediator in age-dependent neuronal and cerebrovascular degeneration, activates death signalling processes leading to neuronal as well as non-neuronal cell death in the central nervous system. A major cellular event in $A{\beta}$-induced apoptosis of non-neuronal cells, including cerebral endothelial cells, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, is mitochondrial dysfunction. The apoptosis signalling cascade upstream of mitochondria entails $A{\beta}$ activation of neutral sphingomyelinase, resulting in the release of ceramide from membrane sphingomyelin. Ceramide then activates protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), a member in the ceramide-activated protein phosphatase (CAPP) family. PP2A dephosphorylation of Akt and FKHRL1 plays a pivotal role in $A{\beta}$-induced Bad translocation to mitochondria and transactivation of Bim. Bad and Bim are pro-apoptotic proteins that cause mitochondrial dysfunction characterized by excessive ROS formation, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage, and release of mitochondrial apoptotic proteins including cytochrome c, apoptosis inducing factor (AIF), endonuclease G and Smac. The cellular events activated by $A{\beta}$ to induce death of non-neuronal cells are complex. Understanding these apoptosis signalling processes will aid in the development of more effective strategies to slow down age-dependent cerebrovascular degeneration caused by progressive cerebrovascular $A{\beta}$ deposition.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.271-278
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• 2013

In order to investigate the effect of gallotannin treatment to ceramide-containing fabrics on atopic skin diseases, the agglomeration of standard protein BSA and the deactivation of model enzyme were examined. The gallotannin treated on ceramide-containing fabrics precipitated the standard protein, BSA, and therefore deactivated the model enzyme by 70% at 6% treatment concentration. Wash durability should be improved after around 5 cycles of washing. Clinical test of the gallotannin-treated fabrics was carried out on mice for two test items, transepidermal water loss assay and severity score of diseased skin of mice. The results showed significant level of improvement of atopic skin diseases compared with the negative controled.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2011

Perturbation of metabolism with increased expression of lipogenic enzymes is a common characteristic of human cancers, including prostate cancer. In the present work the overexpression of stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) in LNCaP cells led to increased mRNA levels of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and acetyl-CoA-carboxylase-a, whereas micro RNA-mediated silencing of SCD inhibited the expression of these lipogenic genes in LNCaP cells. Treatment with the FAS-specific inhibitor cerulenin inhibited SCD induction of LNCaP cell proliferation. In addition, a transient transfection assay revealed the capability of cerulenin to suppress SCD and dihydrotestosterone induction of androgen receptor transcriptional activity. Furthermore, overexpression of SCD in LNCaP cells produced marked resistance to ceramide-induced cell death with reduced poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage. In contrast, silencing of SCD expression increased Bax protein in LNCaP cells. Furthermore, addition of ceramide to SCD knockdown LNCaP cells increased cell death and caspase-3 activity with drastic increase of PARP cleavage. Together, the data indicate that SCD may provide resistance of prostate cancer cells to ceramide-induced cell death.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.49-53
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• 2024

Ceramide is a lipid in which sphingoid bases and fatty acids are linked by amide bonds. As a marker of skin disease in the human stratum corneum, its disease-causing and therapeutic effects have been partially confirmed, and it is therefore an important element in commercially available cosmetic formulations. However, structural diversity caused by differences in the chain length, number, and location of hydroxyl groups makes quality control difficult. In this study, a method was established to separate different ceramide species using reversed-phase LC-MS/MS and thus enable qualitative evaluation. Separation of four standards was achieved within a short retention time, and the accuracy and sensitivity of the method were demonstrated by the low limit of detection (LOD) calculated based on the calibration curve showing linearity, with R² > 0.994. After verification of reproducibility and reliability through intra- and inter-day analyses, the efficiency of the method was confirmed through analysis of commercial cosmetic raw materials.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.211-217
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• 2012

UV-irradiation is a major factor of photo-aged skin, by which pigmentation, wrinkles and laxity are increased. In addition, the epidermal barrier is disrupted, ultimately causing dryness in photo-aged skin. As an effort to search dietary sources for improving the dryness of UV irradiated skin, the dietary effect of red ginseng based functional foods on the epidermal level of ceramides, a major lipid maintaining epidermal barrier, was determined in this study. Albino hairless mice were fed either a control diet [group UV (UV-irradiated control)] or diets with 0.5% (group M0.5) or 1% (group M1.0) of red ginseng extracts mixed with Torilis fructus and Corni fructus (66.7% red ginseng) in parallel with UV irradiation for 5 wks. A normal control group (group C) was fed a control diet without UV irradiation for 5 wks. The epidermal level of ceramides in group UV was significantly lower than that in group C, in which ceramidase, an enzyme involved in ceramide degradation, was highly expressed. In group M0.5, the epidermal level of ceramide was significantly increased to the level even higher than in group C. In addition, protein expression of serine palmitoyl transferase (SPT), a key enzyme involved in de novo ceramide synthesis, was increased in group M0.5. However the epidermal levels of ceramides as well as of ceramidase protein expression in group M1.0 did not differ from those in group UV. In conclusion, we demonstrate that dietary supplementation of red-ginseng extracts mixed with Torilis fructus and Corni fructus at a level of 0.5% level in diet increased the epidermal level of ceramides coupled with the elevated expression of SPT protein.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2016

Objectives: The aim of this study was to solve skin moisturizing action mechanism issues of pomegranate concentrated solution (PCS) and dried pomegranate concentrate powder (PCP), at least partially. Materials and methods: In this study, ceramide and $TGF-{\beta}1$ contents with $TGF-{\beta}1$ mRNA expressions were analysis on the skin tissue homogenate samples after 56 days of continuous oral administration of PCS 1, 2, and 4 ml/kg, and PCP 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg. Results: Noticeable and dose-dependent increases of skin $TGF-{\beta}1$ contents and mRNA expressions were demonstrated in all PCP and PCS treated mice as compared with intact vehicle control, but no significant changes on the skin ceramide contents were demonstrated in all PCP and PCS treated mice as compared with intact vehicle control, in the current study. In addition, PCP 200 mg/kg showed similar increases of the skin $TGF-{\beta}1$ contents and mRNA expressions as compared to those of PCS 4 ml/kg. Conclusions: The presented results suggested that in vivo skin moisturizing effects of PCP and PCS after oral administration through up regulation of hyaluronan synthesis demonstrated in our previous results, may be possibly mediated by modulation of $TGF-{\beta}1$ expressions at least partially, without critical influences on the skin ceramide contents.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.243-248
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• 2008

In the present study, we investigated activity change of sphingomyelin anabolic enzymes such as sphingomyelin synthase and ceramide synthase. Sprague-Dawley male rats treated with 10 mg/kg of DMN intraperitoneally were used as a hepatic fibrosis model. Sphingomyelin synthase and ceramide synthase activities were measured in 1-week, 2-week, 3-week and 4-week DMN-treated rats along with respective control group rats. We found the increased sphingomyelin synthase activity in 4-week DMN-treated liver but not in kidney. Ceramide synthase activity was significantly increased in DMN-treated kidney after 2-week treatment and in DMN-treated liver after 3-week treatment. Although further investigation is necessary to elucidate meanings of sphingolipid metabolites during the liver fibrosis, activity change of sphingolipid anabolic enzymes may imply that sphingolipid metabolism and sphingolipid metabolites could be involved in liver fibrosis especially under oxidative stress.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.319-323
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• 2008

For transdermal delivery of ceramides, various liposomes formulations were studied and evaluated. Sodium deoxycholate (SDC), Tween 20 and Span 85 were used as edge activators. The skin permeation of ceramides was performed using a Franz cell apparatus with hairless mouse skin. Among edge activators, SDC showed the higher values of deformability index and skin permeation than did others. For optimization of formulations, we varied the ratios of lipids to edge activators and the compositions between phosphatidylcholine (PC) and ceramides. The optimal ratio of lipid to SDC was observed to be 6:1 (w:w) and that of PC and ceramide was 1:1. Our results suggest that the skin permeation of ceramides could be enhanced by optimized deformable formulations of liposomes containing SDC as a major edge activator.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1020-1022
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• 2004

A new ceramide alomacrorrhiza A was isolated from the ethanolic extract of the plant Alocasia macrorrhiza (L.) Schott. Its chemical structure was elucidated as (2S,3S,4R)-2N-[(2'R)-2'- hydroxy-hexacosanoyl]-tetradecane-1,3,4-triol based on extensive 1D, 2D NMR, EI-MS, FABMS, HR-FAB-MS spectroscopic data and chemical degradation studies.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.313.1-313.1
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• 2002

Nitric oxide (NO) production through the inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS) pathway has been implicated in inflammatory diseases and cellular injury. Inhibition of various genes related to inflammation, including iNOS is one of the major roles of well-known anti-inflammatory drugs. In the present study, the effects of ceramide analogs on iNOS expression and NO production were evaluated to investigate how ceramide and its structurally related analogs modulate NO-mecliated cellular signals and inflammation. (omitted)