Stress signals for apoptosis: ceramide and c-Jun kinase. Review uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Mammalian systems respond to environmental stress by either adapting or undergoing programmed cell death. While there is general agreement that the caspase family of proteases serve as the effectors of the apoptotic death response, the signaling apparatus involved in the decision to activate the caspase system is less clear. In the past few years, the sphingomyelin and c-Jun Kinase (JNK)/Stress-activated Protein Kinase (SAPK) pathways have been linked to the death response in many cellular systems. These signaling systems are found throughout the animal kingdom, and ceramide signaling is conserved through yeast. Since yeast do not undergo apoptosis, the sphingomyelin pathway appears evolutionarily older than the caspase-mediated death programs. While recent reviews by several groups have broadly surveyed ceramide signaling in apoptosis, this paper examines the role of sphingomyelinases and the JNK/SAPK pathway in coordinate signaling of apoptosis.

publication date

  • December 24, 1998

Research

keywords

  • Apoptosis
  • Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases
  • Ceramides
  • Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases
  • Signal Transduction
  • Stress, Physiological

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0032411879

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1038/sj.onc.1202570

PubMed ID

  • 9916990

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 17

issue

  • 25