FIGURE 7.

Antisense oligonucleotides against mitochondrial SMase protein inhibit ceramide generation. ZE cells were pretreated with 0–20 μm antisense or 20 μm sense oligonucleotides against mitochondrial SMase for 48 h. A, expressed proteins in oligonucleotide-treated cells were detected with anti-mitochondrial SMase or anti-actin antibodies by Western blotting, as described under “Experimental Procedures.” B, C6-NBD-sphingomyelin hydrolyzing activity; C, ceramide content; and D, sphingomyelin content in the mitochondrial fractions. Values and bars indicate the mean ± S.D. of three independent experiments. *, p < 0.01 versus sense oligonucleotide-treated cells.