[Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology] Caveolins and Caveolae Volume 729 || Caveolin-1 and Prostate Cancer Progression

✍ Scribed by Jasmin, Jean-François; Frank, Philippe G.; Lisanti, Michael P.

• Book ID: 115437593
• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 283 KB
• Edition: 1
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 1461412226
• DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-1222-9_7

✦ Synopsis

Caveolae are 50-100 nm flask-shaped invaginations of the plasma membrane that are primarily composed of cholesterol and sphingolipids. Using modern electron microscopy techniques, caveolae can be observed as omega-shaped invaginations of the plasma membrane, fully-invaginated caveolae, grape-like clusters of interconnected caveolae (caveosome), or as transcellular channels as a consequence of the fusion of individual caveolae. The caveolin gene family consists of three distinct members, namely Cav-1, Cav-2 and Cav-3. Cav-1 and Cav-2 proteins are usually co-expressed and particularly abundant in epithelial, endothelial, and smooth muscle cells as well as adipocytes and fibroblasts. On the other hand, the Cav-3 protein appears to be muscle-specific and is therefore only expressed in smooth, skeletal and cardiac muscles. Caveolin proteins form high molecular weight homo- and/or hetero-oligomers and assume an unusual topology with both their N- and C-terminal domains facing the cytoplasm.