Increased serum anti-ceramide antibodies and decreased sphingosine-1-phosphate levels in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome as potential markers of endothelial dysfunction

We demonstrated that anti-ceramide antibody levels were significantly increased, whereas S1P levels were decreased in patients with obstructive sleep apnea in comparison to healthy subjects. These results suggest that the balance between ceramide and S1P (known as sphingolipid rheostat) may be dysregulated in the course of OSA. We suggest that ceramide-Ab might become a valuable positive biomarker of the disease with S1P as a negative biomarker.