Staruschenko Alexander, Sorokin Andrey
Department of Physiology, Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee, WI, USA.
Front Physiol. 2012 May 28;3:154. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2012.00154. eCollection 2012.
Small GTPases function as molecular switches in cell signaling, alternating between an inactive, GDP-bound state, and active GTP-bound state. βPix is one of guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) that catalyze the exchange of bound GDP for ambient GTP. The central goal of this review article is to summarize recent findings on βPix and the role it plays in kidney pathology and physiology. Recent studies shed new light on several key questions concerning the signaling mechanisms mediated by βPix. This manuscript provides a review of the various mechanisms whereby βPix has been shown to function within the kidney through a wide range of actions. Both canonical GEF activity and non-canonical signaling pathways mediated by βPix are discussed. Distribution patterns of βPix in the kidney will be also covered. Much has yet to be discerned, but it is clear that βPix plays a significant role in the kidney.
小GTP酶在细胞信号传导中起分子开关的作用，在无活性的GDP结合状态和活性的GTP结合状态之间交替。βPix是鸟嘌呤核苷酸交换因子（GEF）之一，催化结合的GDP与周围的GTP进行交换。这篇综述文章的核心目标是总结关于βPix的最新研究发现及其在肾脏病理生理学中的作用。最近的研究为有关βPix介导的信号传导机制的几个关键问题提供了新的线索。本文综述了βPix通过多种作用在肾脏中发挥功能的各种机制。讨论了βPix的经典GEF活性和非经典信号通路。还将涵盖βPix在肾脏中的分布模式。尽管仍有许多有待了解，但很明显βPix在肾脏中起着重要作用。
