Cerebrodiene: a brain lipid isolated from sleep-deprived cats.
We report the isolation of a heretofore unrecognized brain lipid that is present in cerebrospinal fluid of sleep-deprived cats. The molecule appears to be a long-chain base structurally related to sphingosine and sphinganine in which a second unsaturated bond has been introduced. An increase in the degree of unsaturation of a key membrane component is expected to have important physiological consequences.
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