Lipoprotein receptors--an evolutionarily ancient multifunctional receptor family.

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 originally 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 ca

SUBMITTER: Dieckmann M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3529395 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature