Mechanism By Which Ceramide Signalling Occurs
Currently, the means by which ceramide acts as a signaling molecule are not clear.
One hypothesis is that ceramide generated in the plasma membrane stabilizes smaller lipid platforms known as lipid rafts, allowing them to serve as platforms for signalling molecules. Moreover, as rafts can cross the entire lipid bilayer, they can serve as the link between signals outside of the cell to signals to be generated within the cell.
Ceramide has also been shown to form organized large channels traversing the mitochondrial outer membrane. This leads to the egress of proteins from the intermembrane space.
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