Lipoprotein receptors – an evolutionarily ancient multifunctional receptor family
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Marco Dieckmann
Abstract
The evolutionarily ancient low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor gene family represents a class of widely expressed cell surface receptors. Since the dawn of the first primitive multicellular organisms, several structurally and functionally distinct families of lipoprotein receptors have evolved. In accordance with the now obsolete ‘one-gene-one-function’ hypothesis, these cell surface receptors were orginally perceived as mere transporters of lipoproteins, lipids, and nutrients or as scavenger receptors, which remove other kinds of macromolecules, such as proteases and protease inhibitors from the extracellular environment and the cell surface. This picture has since undergone a fundamental change. Experimental evidence has replaced the perception that these receptors serve merely as cargo transporters. Instead it is now clear that the transport of macromolecules is inseparably intertwined with the molecular machinery by which cells communicate with each other. Lipoprotein receptors are essentially sensors of the extracellular environment that participate in a wide range of physiological processes by physically interacting and coevolving with primary signal transducers as co-regulators. Furthermore, lipoprotein receptors modulate cellular trafficking and localization of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and the β-amyloid peptide (Aβ), suggesting a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, compelling evidence shows that LDL receptor family members are involved in tumor development and progression.
©2010 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- Guest Editorial
- Highlight: Xenobiotics and Cell Signaling
- Reviews
- An introduction to the molecular basics of aryl hydrocarbon receptor biology
- Mechanisms and cell signaling in alcoholic liver disease
- Superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide-induced signaling and damage in angiotensin II and aldosterone action
- Breakdown products of neoglucobrassicin inhibit activation of Nrf2 target genes mediated by myrosinase-derived glucoraphanin hydrolysis products
- Cadmium ions promote monocytic differentiation of human leukemia HL-60 cells treated with 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3
- Zonation of heme synthesis enzymes in mouse liver and their regulation by β-catenin and Ha-ras
- The C2-streptavidin delivery system promotes the uptake of biotinylated molecules in macrophages and T-leukemia cells
- Short Communications
- c-Src-mediated activation of Erk1/2 is a reaction of epithelial cells to carbon nanoparticle treatment and may be a target for a molecular preventive strategy
- Loss of gap junctional intercellular communication in rat lung epithelial cells exposed to carbon or silica-based nanoparticles
- Review
- Lipoprotein receptors – an evolutionarily ancient multifunctional receptor family
