The Distribution And Expression Of Caveolin-1 Protein In The Central Nervours System Of Adult Rats

Objective: Caveolins are conceived as a symbol of caveolae, a specialised microdomain of cell plasma membranes which is ,based on researches over cells out of the nervous system,involved in receptor- mediated uptake of small molecules and in the regulation of several dynamic events, such as signal transduction, cell growth, apoptosis, and lipid metabolism. Few data are available on the cellular expression and distribution of caveolin-1 in the central nervous system,which are the purpose of this experiment .Method: The distribution of caveolin-1 in the brains of adult SD rats was examined by a sensitive immunohistochemical method. The expression of caveolin-1 was determined by Western blot.Result: Caveolin-1 was widely distributed throughout the adult rat brain, including cerebrum, cerebellum, hippocampus and spinal cord. It was mainly expressed by endothelial cells in the brain microvessels and glial cells in the central nervous system. The result of western blot analysis showed that the expression of caveolin-1 in spinal cord was the highest, hippocampus the second, cerebrum the third and cerebellum the fourth.Conclusion: These data suggested that caveolin-1 might play an important role in the central nervous system.Its significance deserves further investigations.