Research advances on flotillins

The proteins of flotillin-1 and flotillin-2 were originally discovered in axon regeneration of goldfish retinal ganglion cells. They are generally used as marker proteins of lipid rafts and considered to be scaffolding proteins of lipid microdomains. Although they are ubiquitously expressed and well-conserved from fly to man, their exact functions remain controversial. In this review, we summarize the structure of flotillins and some functions of them, such as regulating axon regeneration, endocytosis, T cell activation, insulin signaling, membrane protein recruitment, roles in the progression of some diseases and so on.