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Review
. 2008 Apr;20(2):208-13.
doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2008.01.003. Epub 2008 Feb 20.

Regulation of membrane trafficking in polarized epithelial cells

Heike Fölsch  1
Affiliations
Review

Regulation of membrane trafficking in polarized epithelial cells

Heike Fölsch. Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2008 Apr.

Abstract

Polarized epithelial cells continuously sort transmembrane proteins to either apical or basolateral plasma membrane domains. Research in recent years has made tremendous progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms of the major pathways to either basolateral or apical domain. This understanding will help us elucidating how these pathways are interconnected in ensuring maintenance of cell polarity and integrity of epithelial monolayers.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Membrane trafficking pathways to apical and basolateral membrane domains
This Figure depicts schematically the different pathways to either apical or basolateral plasma membrane domain: (1) raft-dependent trafficking to the apical membrane, (2) raft-independent trafficking to the apical membrane, (3) AP-1B-dependent, “indirect” sorting to the basolateral membrane via recycling endosomes, (4) “direct” sorting to the basolateral plasma membrane without traveling through any endosomes, and (5) “direct” sorting to the basolateral membrane via early endosomes. For details of proteins regulating the sorting steps refer to main text. Note that the route of “direct” sorting to the basolateral membrane is not entirely clear. Abb.: AEE = apical early endosomes, ARE = apical recycling endosomes, BEE = basolateral early endosomes, RE = common recycling endosomes, ND = not discussed in the text.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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