title: Prolactin negatively regulates caveolin-1 gene expression in the mammary gland during lactation, via a Ras-dependent mechanism.
abstract: Caveolin-1 is a 22-kDa integral membrane protein that has been suggested to function as a negative regulator of mitogen-stimulated proliferation in a variety of cell types, including mammary epithelial cells. Because much of our insight into caveolin-1 function has come from the study of human breast tumor-derived cell lines in culture, the normal physiological regulators of caveolin-1 expression in the mammary gland remain unknown. Here, we examine caveolin-1 expression in mice at different stages of mammary gland development. We show that caveolin-1 expression is significantly down-regulated during late pregnancy and lactation. Upon weaning, mammary gland expression of caveolin-1 rapidly returns to non-pregnant "steady-state" levels. Injection of virgin mice with a battery of hormones normally up-regulated during lactation demonstrates that prolactin is the main mediator of caveolin-1 down-regulation. Virtually identical results were obtained with human mammary epithelial cells (hTERT-HME1) in culture. In addition, we demonstrate that prolactin-mediated down-regulation of caveolin-1 expression occurs at the level of transcriptional control and via a Ras-dependent mechanism. Interestingly, in the mammary gland, both mammary epithelial cells and the surrounding mammary adipocytes show prolactin-mediated down-regulation of caveolin-1. This hormone-dependent regulation of caveolin-1 expression is specific to the mammary fat pad. Finally, we employed HC11 cells, a well-established model of mammary epithelial cell differentiation, to study the possible functional effects of caveolin-1 expression. In the presence of lactogenic hormones, recombinant expression of caveolin-1 in HC11 cells dramatically suppresses the induction of the promoter activity and the synthesis of beta-casein, an established reporter of lactogenic differentiation and milk production. These findings may explain why caveolin-1 levels are normally down-regulated during lactation. This report is the first demonstration that caveolin-1 levels are down-regulated during a normal physiological event in vivo, i.e. lactation, because previous reports have only documented that down-regulation of caveolin-1 occurs during cell transformation and tumorigenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Pharmacology, The Albert Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, USA.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Riedel
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hulit
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Scherer
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Pestell
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Lisanti
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002364:Caseins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D051242:Caveolin 1; D022461:Caveolins / Q000235:genetics*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002460:Cell Line; D017931:DNA Primers; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D007774:Lactation / Q000235:genetics*; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System; D008321:Mammary Glands, Animal / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D015689:Oncogene Protein p21(ras) / Q000502:physiology*; D011388:Prolactin / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D002364:Caseins; C495541:Cav1 protein, mouse; D051242:Caveolin 1; D022461:Caveolins; D017931:DNA Primers; D011388:Prolactin; D015689:Oncogene Protein p21(ras)