Adams John S
Burns and Allen Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California, Los angeles, CA 90048, USA.
Cell. 2005 Sep 9;122(5):647-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2005.08.024.
Megalin is a member of the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP) family. The plasma membrane-anchored LRPs serve as receptors for a wide variety of extracellular ligands, promoting their entry into cells by endocytosis of the receptor-ligand complex. In this issue of Cell, Hammes et al. (2005) show that resistance (insensitivity) to sex steroid hormones is encountered in animals lacking megalin. These data provide important insights into an endocytic mechanism for the uptake of sex steroids by mammalian cells.
巨膜蛋白是低密度脂蛋白受体相关蛋白（LRP）家族的成员。锚定在质膜上的LRP作为多种细胞外配体的受体，通过受体-配体复合物的内吞作用促进它们进入细胞。在本期《细胞》杂志中，哈姆斯等人（2005年）表明，在缺乏巨膜蛋白的动物中会出现对性类固醇激素的抗性（不敏感性）。这些数据为哺乳动物细胞摄取性类固醇的内吞机制提供了重要见解。
