Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 49 (2001) 325–335
www.elsevier.com/locate/drugdeliv
Caveolae and the caveolins in human disease
a, a b
*
Lee Campbell , Mark Gumbleton , Kenneth Ritchie
a
Pharmaceutical Cell Biology
,
Welsh School of Pharmacy
,
Cardiff University
,
Cardiff CF
10 3
XF
,
UK
b
Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine
,
The Scripps Research Institute
,
La Jolla
,
CA
92037,
USA
Received 15 January 2001; accepted 3 April 2001
Abstract
There has been an exponential growth in caveolae research since the early 1990s. The caveolae membrane system
comprises unique lipid and protein domains, and fulfills a role in a wide range of processes. At the plasma membrane
caveolae serve to compartmentalise and integrate a wide range of signal transduction processes. A key structural and
functional protein for caveolae is caveolin. Caveolin proteins possess a ‘scaffolding’ domain which for caveolins-1 and -3
appear central to many of the reported signal regulation functions for caveolae. Caveolae or caveolin protein are increasingly
implicated in the molecular pathology of a number of diseases. Opportunities exist for basic and applied investigators
working within the pharmaceutical sciences to exploit the caveolae membrane system to identify novel pharmacological
targets and therapeutic strategies, including the delivery of pharmacologically active caveolin based peptides. 2001
Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords
:
Caveolin; Caveolae; Disease; Cancer; Atherosclerosis; Alzheimer’s disease; Diabetes; Muscular dystrophy; Inflammation
Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................ 325
2. Muscular dystrophy................................................................................................................................................................. 326
3. Cancer.................................................................................................................................................................................... 327
4. Diabetes ................................................................................................................................................................................. 329
5. Atherosclerosis ....................................................................................................................................................................... 330
6. Inflammation .......................................................................................................................................................................... 331
7. Alzheimer’s disease................................................................................................................................................................. 331
8. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................. 332
References .................................................................................................................................................................................. 332
1. Introduction
First identified as flask shaped structures conspicu-
ously positioned at the plasma membrane of endo-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: 1 44-029-2087-5449; fax: 1 44-
thelial cells [1], caveolae have traditionally been
029-2087-5449.
E-mail address
:
campbelll@cardiff.ac.uk (L. Campbell).
viewed as specialised transport organelles facilitating
0169-409X/01/$ – see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S0169-409X(01)00145-4