Caveolae: from cell biology to animal physiology
Babak Razani1, Scott E Woodman, Michael P Lisanti
1Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York 10461, USA.
None:
Among the membrane compartments of a cell, vesicles known as "caveolae" have long defied functional characterization. However, since the identification of a family of proteins termed "caveolins", that form and reside in caveolae, a better understanding has emerged. It is now clear that caveolae do not merely play a singular role in the cell, but are pleiotropic in nature-serving to modulate many cellular functions. The purpose of this review is to explicate what is known about caveolins/caveolae and highlight growing areas of caveolar research.
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