Among the membrane compartments of a cell, vesicles known as "caveolae" have long defied functional characterization. However, since the identification of a family of proteins termed "caveolins", that form and reside in caveolae, a better understanding has emerged. It is now clear that caveolae do not merely play a singular role in the cell, but are pleiotropic in nature-serving to modulate many cellular functions. The purpose of this review is to explicate what is known about caveolins/caveolae and highlight growing areas of caveolar research.

中文翻译：

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小窝：从细胞生物学到动物生理学。

在细胞的膜区室中，被称为“小泡”的囊泡长期以来一直缺乏功能特征。然而，由于鉴定了形成并存在于小窝中的称为“小窝蛋白”的蛋白质家族，因此出现了更好的理解。现在清楚的是，海绵小窝不仅在细胞中发挥独特作用，而且在性质上具有多效性，可调节许多细胞功能。这篇综述的目的是阐明已知的小窝蛋白/小窝并强调小窝研究的增长领域。