Sphingolipids act as structural components of cellular membranes and as signal molecules in a variety of plant developmental processes and defense responses, including programmed cell death. In a previous study we characterized an Arabidopsis thaliana cell-death mutant, accelerated cell death5 (acd5), which accumulates ceramides and exhibits spontaneous cell death late in development. Here, we report that NaCl treatment inhibits cell death in the acd5 mutant and prevents the accumulation of sphingolipids. We found that the effect of NaCl was partly dependent on the antagonistic interaction between endogenous salicylic acid and abscisic acid. Further, we found that pre-treatment with salt enhanced the A. thaliana resistance response to biotic stress, and this enhanced resistance did not involve the pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered immune response. Possible mechanisms will be further discussed.