A ceramide contains a long-chain amino alcohol carrying a fatty acid through an amide linkage; sphingosine is a common backbone. Ceramides are central building blocks of more complex sphingolipids and also participate in signal transduction.
Changing the fatty-acid chain changes packing within a cell membrane without changing the identity of the polar linkage. Thus the name ceramide denotes a lipid class, rather than one fixed molecular formula.[ref]
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