A role for caveolin-1 in post-injury reactive neuronal plasticity.

Remodeling and plasticity in the adult brain require cholesterol redistribution and synthesis for the formation of new membrane components. Caveolin-1 is a cholesterol-binding membrane protein involved in cellular cholesterol transport and homeostasis. Evidence presented here demonstrates an up-regulation of caveolin-1 in the hippocampus, which was temporally correlated with an increase in synaptophysin during the reinnervation phase in a mouse model of hippocampal deafferentation. Using an in vitro model of neuronal reactive plasticity, we examined the effect of virally mediated overexpression of caveolin-1 on injured differentiated PC12 cells undergoing terminal remodeling. Three days post lesion, caveolin-1-overexpressing cells revealed increases in synaptophysin and GAP-43, two markers of neurite sprouting and synaptogenesis. Morphologically, caveolin-1-overexpressing cells showed a decrease in primary neurite outgrowth and branching as well as an increase in neurite density. Caveolin-1-overexpressing cells also revealed the presence of terminal swelling and beading along processes, consistent with a possible alteration of microtubules stability. Moreover, a focal enrichment of caveolin-1 immunofluorescence was observed at the bases of axonal and dendritic terminals of mouse primary hippocampal neurons. Altogether, these results indicate that caveolin-1 plays an active role in the regulation of injury-induced synaptic and terminal remodeling in the adult CNS.

Increased caveolin-1 expression in Alzheimer's disease brain.

Increasing evidence suggests that cholesterol plays a central role in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Caveolin is a cholesterol-binding membrane protein involved in cellular cholesterol transport. We investigated the changes in the protein amount of hippocampal caveolin of autopsy-confirmed AD and aged-matched control subjects. Our results demonstrate that caveolin protein levels in the hippocampus and caveolin mRNA in the frontal cortex are up-regulated in AD by approximately two-fold, compared to control brains. These results suggest a relationship between caveolin-1 expression levels and a dysregulation of cholesterol homeostasis at the plasma membrane of brain cells. In support of this hypothesis, a significant increase in caveolin protein levels has also been observed in hippocampal tissue from ApoE-deficient (knockout) and aged wild-type mice; two situations associated with modifications of transbilayer distribution of cholesterol in brain synaptic plasma membranes. These results indicate that caveolin over-expression is linked to alterations of cholesterol distribution in the plasma membrane of brain cells and are consistent with the notion of a deterioration of cholesterol homeostasis in AD.

A role for lipoprotein lipase during synaptic remodeling in the adult mouse brain.

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is a member of a lipase family known to hydrolyze triglyceride molecules found in lipoprotein particles. This particular lipase also has a role in the binding of lipoprotein particles to different cell-surface receptors. LPL has been identified in the brain but has no specific function yet. This study aimed at elucidating the role of LPL in the brain in response to injury. Mice were subjected to hippocampal deafferentation using the entorhinal cortex lesion and mRNA and protein expression were assessed over a time-course of degeneration/reinnervation. Hippocampal LPL levels peaked at 2 days post-lesion (DPL) both at the mRNA and protein levels. No change was observed for receptors of the LDL-receptor family or RAP at DPL 2 in the hippocampus but the glia-specific syndecan-4 was found to be significantly upregulated at DPL 2. These results suggest that LPL is involved in the recycling of cholesterol and lipids released from degenerating terminals after a lesion through a syndecan-4-dependent pathway.

The caveolin scaffolding domain modifies 2-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate receptor binding properties by inhibiting phospholipase A2 activity.

Activation of the enzyme phospholipase (PLA 2) has been proposed to be part of the molecular mechanism involved in the alteration of 2-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate (AMPA) glutamate receptor responsiveness during long term changes in synaptic plasticity (long term potentiation). This study assesses the effect of the caveolin-1 scaffolding domain (CSD) on the activity of the regulatory enzyme PLA2. Caveolin-1 is a 22-kDa cholesterol-binding membrane protein known to inhibit the activity of most of its interacting partners. Our results show that the calcium-dependent cytosolic form of PLA2 (cPLA2) and caveolin-1 co-localized in mouse primary hippocampal neuron cultures and that they were co-immunoprecipitated from mouse hippocampal homogenates. A peptide corresponding to the scaffolding domain of caveolin-1 (Cav-(82-101)) dramatically inhibited cPLA2 activity in purified hippocampal synaptoneurosomes. Activation of endogenous PLA2 activity with KCl or melittin increased the binding of [3H]AMPA to its receptor. This effect was almost completely abolished by the addition of the CSD peptide to these preparations. Moreover, we demonstrated that the inhibitory action of the CSD peptide on AMPA receptor binding properties is specific (because a scrambled version of this peptide failed to have any effect) and that it is mediated by an inhibition of PLA2 enzymatic activity (because the CSD peptide failed to have an effect in membrane preparations lacking endogenous PLA2 activity). These results raised the possibility that caveolin-1, via the inhibition of cPLA2 enzymatic activity, may interfere with synaptic facilitation and long term potentiation formation in the hippocampus.