Exocytosis: The chromaffin cell as a model system

Neurons and neuroendocrine cells release transmitters and hormones by exocytosis of seerctory vesicles or granules. Among the cell models that have provided insight into the molecular machinery underlying the successive steps of exocytosis, adrenal chromaffin cells have taken a prominent place. Thus, most of the molecular players that orchestrate the formation, targeting, docking, and fusion of secrctory granules have been identified in chromaffin cells. By offering the opportunity to combine the use of recent biophysical techniques allowing single-vesicle resolution and specific biochemical modifications in the protein machinery involved in exocytosis, chromaffn cells remain a powerful model to address new and still open questions in the field of secretion.