SMPD3 and neuroblastoma: Clarke et al. (2016) demonstrated that nSMase2, a key ceramide-producing enzyme involved in cellular stress responses, plays a role in ATRA-induced growth arrest induced by ATRA in MCF7 cells. The observed phenomenon was ascribed to the dephosphorylation of β-catenin through the involvement of a protein phosphatase 1-γ, indicating the presence of a signaling mechanism that mediates this particular action (Espaillat et al., 2015). Recent research has elucidated the role of dihydroceramide in regulating G0/G1 arrest triggered by cell confluence in neuroblastoma (Espaillat et al., 2015).