image: This image shows the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on newborn neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of pups at postnatal day 30 (laser confocal microscope, scale bar: 80 μm). Doublecortin (DCX, green) positive newborn neurons were labeled using immunocytochemistry. The number of newborn neurons in the dentate gyrus of sphingomyelin synthase 2 knockout pups was much higher than that of the wild-type pups, and alcohol could upregulate the formation of newborn neurons. view more
Credit: <i>Neural Regeneration Research</i>
Clinical literature and animal experiments have shown that prenatal alcohol exposure in utero, especially during the early stages of pregnancy, can cause fetal alcohol syndrome. The pharmacological and toxicological mechanisms of ethanol are considered to be related to the effects of ceramide. As an important signal transduction molecule, ceramide participates in a variety of cellular transduction pathways and can modulate cell cycle, cellular differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. A recent study, published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 23, 2013), verified that ceramide is involved in alcohol-induced neural proliferation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of pups after prenatal ethanol exposure, and the mechanism may be associated with increased ex-pression of protein kinase C α activating the ceramide/ceramide-1-phosphate pathway. Authors, Zhixin Wang and colleagues from Henan University, believe that this study preliminarily explains the mechanism underlying fetal alcohol syndrome caused byprenatal ethanol exposure.
Article: " Ceramide is involved in alcohol-induced neural proliferation," by Zhixin Wang1, 2, Tongxing Deng3, Jiexin Deng1, Jinbo Deng1, Xiaoqun Gao2, Yuanyuan Shi1, Bin Liu1, Zhanyou Ma1, Haixiao Jin1 (1 Institute of Neurobiology, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, Henan Province, China; 2 Department of Anatomy, Basic Medical College, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China; 3 Department of Anatomy, Luohe Medical College, Luohe 462002, Henan Province, China)
Wang ZX, Deng TX, Deng JX, Deng JB, Gao XQ, Shi YY, Liu B, Ma ZY, Jin HX. Ceramide is involved in alcohol-induced neural proliferation. Neural Regen Res. 2013;8(23):2178-2189.
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Neural Regeneration Research