在过去的十年中，铜 (Cu) 在哺乳动物生理学中发挥多种作用的证据呈指数增长。 Cu 参与细胞信号传导、自噬、细胞运动、分化和调节细胞死亡（铜中毒）的发现显着扩展了 Cu 已知功能的列表，例如必需代谢酶的辅助因子、蛋白质结构成分和蛋白质运输的调节者。铜转运蛋白和酶的新颖且意想不到的功能已被鉴定，并且铜稳态的新紊乱已被描述。门克斯病和威尔逊病这两种经典的铜代谢疾病的机制研究取得了重大进展，为新的治疗方法铺平了道路。铜凋亡和铜在细胞转移生长中的作用的发现显着增加了人们对针对铜稳态途径治疗癌症的兴趣。在这篇综述中，我们总结了哺乳动物铜生理学领域的既定概念，并讨论了过去十年的新发现如何扩展和修改这些概念。铜在脑代谢、细胞功能物种形成和最近发现的调节细胞死亡中的作用引起了人们的广泛关注，并在本综述中得到了强调。

In the past decade, evidence for numerous roles of copper (Cu) in mammalian physiology has grown exponentially. The discoveries of Cu involvement in cell signaling, autophagy, cell motility, differentiation, and regulated cell death (cuproptosis) have markedly extended the list of already known functions of Cu, such as a cofactor of essential metabolic enzymes, a protein structural component, and a regulator of protein trafficking. Novel and unexpected functions of Cu transporting proteins and enzymes have been identified, and new disorders of Cu homeostasis have been described. Significant progress has been made in the mechanistic studies of two classic disorders of Cu metabolism, Menkes disease and Wilson disease, which paved ways to novel approaches to their treatment. Discovery of cuproptosis and the role of Cu in cells metastatic growth have markedly increased interest in targeting Cu homeostatic pathways to treat cancer. In this review, we summarize the established concepts in the field of mammalian Cu physiology, and discuss how new discoveries of the past decade expand and modify these concepts. The roles of Cu in brain metabolism, in cells' functional speciation and a recently discovered regulated cell death have attracted significant attention and are highlighted in this review.