Application Notes:
This high purity and well-defined dihydroceramide is ideal as a standard and for biological studies.1 Dihydroceramide is a
critical intermediate in the synthesis of many complex sphingoid bases. Inhibition of dihydroceramide synthesis by some
fungal toxins that have a similar structure causes an increase in sphinganine and sphinganine-1-phosphate and a decrease in
other sphingolipids leading to a number of diseases including oesophageal cancer. Dihydroceramide, synthesized by the
acylation of sphinganine, is subsequently converted into ceramide via a desaturase enzyme or into phytosphingosine via the
C4-hydrozylase enzyme2. N-(4-Hydroxyphenyl) retinamide has been tested as an anti-cancer agent. It inhibits the
dihydroceramide desaturase enzyme in cells resulting in a high concentration of dihydroceramide and dihydro-sphingolipids
and this is thought to be the cause of the anti-cancer effects.3 Dihydrosphingosine induces cell death in a number of types of
malignant cells.
References:
1. M. Jazwinski et al. “Suppression of Glucosylceramide Synthase Restores p53-Dependent Apoptosis in Mutant p53 Cancer Cells” Cancer Research, vol.
71 pp. 2276, 2011
2. Y. Mizutani, A. Kihara, and Y. Igarashi “Identifcation of the human sphingolipid C4-hydroxylase, hDES2, and its up-regulation during keratinocyte
differentiation” FEBS Letters, vol. 563 pp. 93-97, 2004
3. W. Zheng “Fenretinide increases dihydroceramide and dihydrosphingolipids due to inhibition of dihydroceramide desaturase” Georgia Institute of
Technology, 2006