Cells, Volume 4, Issue 3

Recent studies have demonstrated the interference of nucleocytoplasmic trafficking with the establishment and maintenance of various cancers. Nucleocytoplasmic transport is highly regulated and coordinated, involving different nuclear transport facto...

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺) is an essential co-enzyme reported to operate both intra- and extracellularly. In the extracellular space, NAD⁺ can elicit signals by binding purinergic P2 receptors or it can serve as the substrate for a chai...

The nephron is the basic structural and functional unit of the vertebrate kidney. To ensure kidney functions, the nephrons possess a highly segmental organization where each segment is specialized for the secretion and reabsorption of particular solu...

Cilia and flagella are highly conserved and important microtubule-based organelles that project from the surface of eukaryotic cells and act as antennae to sense extracellular signals. Moreover, cilia have emerged as key players in numerous physiolog...

Cilia/flagella are conserved eukaryotic organelles that play an important role in the control of cell motility and detection of environmental cues. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying ciliary/flagellar assembly, maintenance, disassembly, and...

Nuclear mRNA export plays an important role in gene expression. We describe the mechanisms of mRNA export including the importance of mRNP assembly, docking with the nuclear basket of the nuclear pore complex (NPC), transit through the central channe...

Spindle microtubules capture and segregate chromosomes and, therefore, their assembly is an essential event in mitosis. To carry out their mission, many key players for microtubule formation need to be strictly orchestrated. Particularly, proteins th...

Cellular NAD(P)H-dependent oxidoreductase activity with artificial dyes (NAD(P)H-OR) is an indicator of viability, as the cellular redox state is important for biosynthesis and antioxidant defense. However, high NAD(P)H due to impaired mitochondrial...

Proteasomes are highly conserved protease complexes responsible for the degradation of aberrant and short-lived proteins. In highly proliferating yeast and mammalian cells, proteasomes are predominantly nuclear. During quiescence and cell cycle arres...

Autophagy plays a major role in the elimination of cellular waste components, the renewal of intracellular proteins and the prevention of the build-up of redundant or defective material. It is fundamental for the maintenance of homeostasis and especi...

Motile cilia of the lungs respond to environmental challenges by increasing their ciliary beat frequency in order to enhance mucociliary clearance as a fundamental tenant of innate defense. One important second messenger in transducing the regulable...

Centrosomes are major microtubule-organizing centers of animal cells that consist of two centrioles. In mitotic cells, centrosomes are duplicated to serve as the poles of the mitotic spindle, while in quiescent cells, centrosomes move to the apical m...

Paramecium species, especially P. tetraurelia and caudatum, are model organisms for modern research into the form and function of cilia. In this review, we focus on the ciliary ion channels and other transmembrane proteins that control the beat frequ...

Many viruses deliver their genomes into the host cell’s nucleus before they replicate. While onco-retroviruses and papillomaviruses tether their genomes to host chromatin upon mitotic breakdown of the nuclear envelope, lentiviruses, such as human imm...

Cells has instituted a “Best Paper” award to recognize the most outstanding papers in the area of cell biology, molecular biology, and biophysics, published in Cells.

Dentate-gyral granule cells in the hippocampus plus dentate gyrus memory-recording/retrieving machine, unlike most other neurons in the brain, are continuously being generated in the adult brain with the important task of separating overlapping patt...

In renal failure, the systemic accumulation of uremic waste products is strongly associated with the development of a chronic inflammatory state. Here, the effect of cationic uremic toxins on the release of inflammatory cytokines and endothelin-1 (ET...