Caveolae, lipid composition

Vesicular transport occurs when a membrane completely surrounds a compound, particle, or cell and encloses it into a vesicle. When the vesicle fuses with another membrane system, the entrapped compounds are released. Endocytosis refers to vesicular transport into the cell, and exocytosis to transport out of the cell. Endocytosis is further classified as phagocytosis if the vesicle forms around particulate matter (such as whole bacterial cells or metals and dyes from a tattoo), and pinocy-tosis if the vesicle forms around fluid containing dispersed molecules. Receptor-mediated endocytosis is the name given to the formation of clathrin-coated vesicles that mediate the internalization of membrane-bound receptors in vesicles coated on the intracellular side with subunits of the protein clathrin (Eig. 10.14). Potocytosis is the name given to endocytosis that occurs via caveolae (small invaginations or caves ), which are regions of the cell membrane with a unique lipid and protein composition (including the protein caveolin-1). 

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