Department of Biochemistry Boston University School of Medicine, 72 East Concord St., Boston, MA 02118, USA.
Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2011 Aug;22(8):318-24. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2011.04.001. Epub 2011 May 17.
Caveolae are subdomains of the eukaryotic cell surface, so named because they resemble little caves, being small omega-shaped invaginations of the plasma membrane into the cytosol. They are present in many cell types, and are especially abundant in adipocytes, in which they have been implicated as playing a role in lipid metabolism. Thus, mice and humans lacking caveolae have small adipocytes and exhibit lipodystrophies along with other physiological abnormalities. In this review, we examine the evidence supporting the role of caveolae in adipocyte lipid metabolism in the context of the protein and lipid composition of these structures.
小窝是真核细胞表面的亚区，之所以这样命名，是因为它们类似于小洞穴，是质膜向内凹陷到细胞质中的小的ω形凹陷。它们存在于许多细胞类型中，在脂肪细胞中尤其丰富，在脂肪细胞中，它们被认为在脂质代谢中发挥作用。因此，缺乏小窝的小鼠和人类的脂肪细胞较小，并表现出脂肪营养不良以及其他生理异常。在这篇综述中，我们根据这些结构的蛋白质和脂质组成，检查了支持小窝在脂肪细胞脂质代谢中的作用的证据。
