{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.025684931506849314, 'fraction_numerical': 0.004280821917808219, 'mean_word_length': 5.567415730337078, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Ceramide synergizes with phorbol ester or okadaic acid to induce IkappaB degradation.

Ceramide is a lipid second messenger which is generated in response to stimulation of a number of surface receptors, treatment with chemotherapeutic agents, or ionising radiation. Depending on the target cell, ceramide induces diverse biological responses including apoptosis, cell-cycle arrest, differentiation, and also proliferation. We studied the effect of ceramide on the degradation of IkappaB, the cytoplasmic inhibitor of the transcription factor NF-kappaB. We show that ceramide treatment results in reduced levels of phosphorylated IkappaBalpha and degradation of both IkappaBalpha and IkappaBbeta. Ceramide synergised with okadaic acid (OA), a compound which interferes with the protein phosphatase 2A-controlled component of the NF-kappaB activation pathway, enhancing OA-induced IkappaB degradation. Ceramide also synergised with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, which mimics protein kinase C activation. Finally, we show that the synergistic effect of ceramide with OA or phorbol ester can be observed in primary lymph node T-cells as well as in transformed T-cells.