Cholesterol: Enhancing FGF2 translocation in unconventional secretion.

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF2) is a potent mitogen that is secreted through an unconventional secretory pathway by crossing the plasma membrane directly. In this current issue, Lolicato et al. (2022. J. Cell Biol.https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202106123) find that the secretion process is promoted by cholesterol, which enhances PI(4,5)P2 accessibility to FGF2 binding and alters membrane property to increase FGF2 translocation.