On mechanism of biosynthesis and enzymatic degradation of intercellular sphingolipids in stratum corneum

Abstract

The Intercellular lipids of stratum corneum, including ceramides, cholesterol, free fatty acids, triglycerides and cholesteryl sulfate, play the important roles such as the water permeation barrier, water retention properties and cohesion-dishesion mechanism. This paper focuses in the sphingolipids, which contain sphingosine, ceramides, sphingomyelin and cerebrosides, and describes the recent advances of investigations on the biosynthesis and enzymatic degradation of their sphingolipids.