title: Knock down of caveolin-1 affects morphological and functional hallmarks of human endothelial cells.
abstract: Caveolin-1 (CAV1) is the principal structural component of caveolae which functions as scaffolding protein for the integration of a variety of signaling pathways. In this study, we investigated the involvement of CAV1 in endothelial cell (EC) functions and show that siRNA-induced CAV1 silencing in the human EC line EA.hy926 induces distinctive morphological changes, such as a marked increase in cell size and formation of stress fibers. Design-based stereology was employed in this work to make unbiased quantification of morphometric properties such as volume, length, and surface of CAV1 silenced versus control cells. In addition, we showed that downregulation of CAV1 affects cell cycle progression at G1/S phase transition most likely by perturbation of AKT signaling. With the aim to assess the contribution of CAV1 to typical biological processes of EC, we report here that CAV1 targeting affects cell migration and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) activity, and reduces angiogenesis in response to VEGF, in vitro. Taken together our data suggest that the proper expression of CAV1 is important not only for maintaining the appropriate morphology and size of ECs but it might represent a prospective molecular target for studying key biological mechanisms such as senescence and tumorigenesis.
authors: Department of Anatomy, Histology, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics, Section of Histology and Medical Embryology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: Madaro
authors: Fabrizio
authors: F
authors: Antonangeli
authors: Annarita
authors: A
authors: Favia
authors: Bianca
authors: B
authors: Esposito
authors: Filippo
authors: F
authors: Biamonte
authors: Marina
authors: M
authors: Bouché
authors: Elio
authors: E
authors: Ziparo
authors: Gigliola
authors: G
authors: Sica
authors: Antonio
authors: A
authors: Filippini
authors: Alessio
authors: A
authors: D'Alessio
mesh_terms: D051242:Caveolin 1 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D002460:Cell Line; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D017364:Collagenases / Q000378:metabolism; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016193:G1 Phase / Q000502:physiology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques; D006801:Humans; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016196:S Phase / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: C495540:CAV1 protein, human; D051242:Caveolin 1; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D017364:Collagenases