Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2016 Sep 8;8(1):14–24. doi: 10.1007/s13238-016-0312-3

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© The Author(s) 2016

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

PMC Copyright notice

Normal ER function and ER stress. The ER has two main forms, namely the rough and smooth ER (RER and SER) according to their different structures and functions. RER is studded with abundant ribosomes and is mainly responsible for protein folding and post-translational modification. SER does not have attached ribosomes and is a primary site for drug detoxification, fatty acid and steroid biosynthesis, and Ca⁺ storage. Some physiological or pathological conditions, such as hypoxia and glucose deprivation, can perturb ER function, leading to accumulation of unfolded and misfolded proteins within the ER and resulting in induction of ER stress. In addition, perturbation of Ca²⁺ homeostasis and aberrant lipid and steroid biosynthesis may further impair ER function