Ceramide inhibits CCN2 expression in fibroblasts

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF, CCN2) is induced in response to TGFbeta in fibroblasts. In this report, we show that C2 ceramide reduced the ability of TGFbeta to induce CCN2 protein, mRNA and promoter activity in fibroblasts. C2 ceramide reduced the ability of TGFbeta to induce the generic Smad responsive promoter/reporter construct SBE-luciferase. These results suggest that C2 ceramide reduces the action of TGFbeta in fibroblasts via Smad antagonism.