Inositolphosphoglycan second messengers
Rademacher, T.W.; Caro, H.; Kunjara, S.; Wang, D.Y.; Greenbaum, A.L.; McLean, P.
Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research 27(2): 327-341
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0100-879X PMID: 8081246 Document Number: 427943
The mechanisms by which cellular receptors can elicit different biological responses in a maturation state-dependent manner is one of the central problems in cell differentiation which remains to be resolved. The signals generated are likely to be due to additional (as yet unknown) transmembrane signalling pathways. In addition, the recent observation that a single growth factor receptor can activate a whole family of different putative second messengers and that the combinatorial interactions and stoichiometric ratios between the different messengers determine the resulting biological activities has opened up a whole new area of cell biology. It has been proposed that membrane GPI-anchors may function in signal transduction. We have recently confirmed the presence of a family of inositol phosphoglycan second messengers. Partial structural data suggests that these second messengers are not derived from known GPI membrane anchors and may thus constitute a novel class of non-protein-conjugated GPI.