SMPD1 and familial hypercholesterolemia: Li and colleagues recently found that acid sphingomyelinase (ASMase, encoded by gene Smpd1) and ceramide-associated membrane raft (MR) signaling platforms were involved in endothelial NLRP3 inflammasome activation and atherogenesis resulting from hypercholesterolemia (Koka et al., 2017).