Farnesol is a catabolite of the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway that prefer-entially causes apoptosis in tumorigenic cells. Phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidic acid (PA), and diacylglycerol (DAG) were able to prevent induction of apoptosis by farnesol. Primary alcohol inhibition of PC cata-bolism by phospholipase D augmented farnesol-induced apoptosis. Exogen-ous PC was unable to prevent the increase in farnesol-induced apoptosis by primary alcohols, whereas DAG was protective.
