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The biological functions of cell-to-cell connection over long distance--membrane nanotube

SHEN Jing, ZHANG You-Yi, XIAO Han^*

Department of Cardiology and Institute of Vascular Medicine, Peking University Third Hospital; NHC Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Molecular Biology and Regulatory Peptides; Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Science, Ministry of Education; Beijing Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Receptors Research, Beijing 100191, China

Abstract

Cell-to-cell connections provide conduits for signal exchanges, and play important functional roles in physiological and pathological processes of multicellular organisms. Membrane nanotubes are common long-distance connections between cells, not only transfer molecule signals and mitochondria, but also cooperate with gap junction and other cell-to-cell communications to transfer signals. During the last decade, there are many studies about membrane nanotubes, which focus on the similarities and differences between membrane nanotubes and other cell-to-cell communications, as well as their biological functions. In the present review, we summarized the latest findings about the structural diversity, the similarities and differences in signal transmission with other types of cell-to-cell communications, and physiological and pathological roles of membrane nanotubes.

Key words: membrane nanotube; cell-to-cell communication; signal transduction; biological function

Received: 2018-07-18　　Accepted: 2018-12-18

Corresponding author: 肖晗　　E-mail: xiaohan@bjmu.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2019.0020

Citing This Article：

SHEN Jing, ZHANG You-Yi, XIAO Han. The biological functions of cell-to-cell connection over long distance--membrane nanotube. Acta Physiol Sin 2019; 71 (2): 196-204 (in Chinese with English abstract).