Stress of endoplasmic reticulum: the cytological "scenario" of pathogenesis of human diseases

Abstract

The phenomenon of stress of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) attracts an increasingly higher attention of the researchers. The available data suggest that ER dysfunction is a common component of many human pathologies including oncological diseases and neurodegenerative viral diseases. Stress of ER is of special significance in the cell populations actively secreting proteins because protein folding disturbances play an important role in its development. This fact opens up prospects for the better understanding of pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus and some other diseases. The present work summarizes the current concepts of biochemical mechanisms underlying stress of endoplasmic reticulum and elucidates the key signal pathways for its compensation and proapoptosis.