title: Flotillins in intercellular adhesion - from cellular physiology to human diseases.
abstract: Flotillin 1 and 2 are ubiquitous and highly conserved proteins. They were initially discovered in 1997 as being associated with specific caveolin-independent cholesterol- and glycosphingolipid-enriched membrane microdomains and as being expressed during axon regeneration. Flotillins have a role in a large number of physiopathological processes, mainly through their function in membrane receptor clustering and in the regulation of clathrin-independent endocytosis. In this Commentary, we summarize the research performed so far on the role of flotillins in cell-cell adhesion. Recent studies have demonstrated that flotillins directly regulate the formation of cadherin complexes. Indeed, flotillin microdomains are required for the dynamic association and stabilization of cadherins at cell-cell junctions and also for cadherin signaling. Moreover, because flotillins regulate endocytosis and also the actin cytoskeleton, they could have an indirect role in the assembly and stabilization of cadherin complexes. Because it has also recently been shown that flotillins are overexpressed during neurodegenerative diseases and in human cancers, where their upregulation is associated with metastasis formation and poor prognosis, understanding to what extent flotillin upregulation participates in the development of such pathologies is thus of particular interest, as well as how, at the molecular level, it might affect cell adhesion processes.
authors.affiliation: Equipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, Universités Montpellier 2 et 1, CRBM, CNRS, UMR 5237, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France stephane.bodin@crbm.cnrs.fr cecile.gauthier@crbm.cnrs.fr.
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bodin
authors.affiliation: Equipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, Universités Montpellier 2 et 1, CRBM, CNRS, UMR 5237, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Planchon
authors.affiliation: Equipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, Universités Montpellier 2 et 1, CRBM, CNRS, UMR 5237, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rios Morris
authors.affiliation: Equipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, Universités Montpellier 2 et 1, CRBM, CNRS, UMR 5237, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Comunale
authors.affiliation: Equipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, Universités Montpellier 2 et 1, CRBM, CNRS, UMR 5237, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France stephane.bodin@crbm.cnrs.fr cecile.gauthier@crbm.cnrs.fr.
authors.forename: Cécile
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gauthier-Rouvière
mesh_terms: D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D004194:Disease; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C106354:flotillins
keywords: Adhesion; Cadherin; Flotillin; Microdomain