The Biology of Caveolae: Lessons from Caveolin Knockout Mice and Implications for Human Disease
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 445-464.
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Caveolae are microdomains of the cell membranes of diverse cell types. The presence of caveolins within these microdomains is definitive of caveolae, and attempts to understand the roles of these proteins in cell-cycle regulation, membrane trafficking, and cell signaling rely on gene knockout technologies. As has been the case for many protein families, deletion of multiple caveolins, despite their obvious importance, results in viable and healthy mice. The molecular characterization of knockout tissues, however, explains the potential for caveolin-null mice to develop a wide variety of progressive diseases, provided that the animals are exposed to risk factors. Knockout animals that are deficient in caveolin, in fact, may provide animal models for a vast array of human diseases, ranging from cancer and diabetes to muscular dystrophy and urogenital disease. Careful physiological analysis, moreover, continues to delineate the roles of the caveolins in several aspects of basic cell biology.
