Prohormone transport through the secretory pathway of neuroendocrine cells

En route through the secretory pathway of neuroendocrine cells, prohormones pass a series of membrane-bounded compartments. During this transport, the prohormones are sorted to secretory granules and proteolytically cleaved to bioactive peptides. Recently, progress has been made in a number of aspects concerning secretory protein transport and sorting, particularly with respect to transport events in the early regions of the secretory pathway. In this review we will deal with some of these aspects, including: i) selective exit from the endoplasmic reticulum via COPII-coated vesicles and the potential role of p24 putative cargo receptors in this process, ii) cisternal maturation as an alternative model for protein transport through the Golgi complex, and iii) the mechanisms that may be involved in the sorting of regulated secretory proteins to secretory granules. Although much remains to be learned, interesting new insights into the functioning of the secretory pathway have been obtained.Key words: regulated secretory pathway, p24 family, vesicular transport, POMC, protein sorting, secretory granule, Xenopus laevis.