Endoplasmic reticulum stress and unfolded protein response

Abstract

Another important function of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which has many important tasks in the cell, is to ensure the protein folding. In ER, there are glucose regulated protein 78, glucose regulated protein 94, lectin like proteins and foldases, which enable the protein folding. In case of physiological and pathological situations that exceed the function capacity of ER, unfolded or misfolded protein accumulation occurs in lumen and this case is named as ER stress. After the ER stress occurs in the cell, the signal pathways named unfolded protein response (UPR) step in for the continuance of the vital functions of the cell. Major UPR signal pathways include protein kinase RNA (PKR) like ER kinase (PERK), activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6), j requiring kinase 1 (IRE1). © 2012 OMU.