Ceramide is among a number of potential lipotoxic molecules that are thought to modulate
cellular energy metabolism. The heart is one of the tissues thought to become dysfunctional
due to excess lipid accumulation. Dilated lipotoxic cardiomyopathy, thought to be the result
of diabetes and severe obesity, has been modeled in several genetically altered mice,
including animals with cardiac-specific overexpression of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-
anchored human lipoprotein lipase (LpL GPI). To test whether excess ceramide was …