No abstract

The cell biology of caveolae is a rapidly growing area of biomedical research. Caveolae are known primarily for their ability to transport molecules across endothelial cells, but modern cellular techniques have dramatically extended our view of caveolae. They form a unique endocytic and exocytic compartment at the surface of most cells and are capable of importing molecules and delivering them to specific locations within the cell, exporting molecules to extracellular space, and compartmentalizing a variety of signaling activities. They are not simply an endocytic device with a peculiar membrane shape but constitute an entire membrane system with multiple functions essential for the cell. Specific diseases attack this system: Pathogens have been identified that use it as a means of gaining entrance to the cell. Trying to understand the full range of functions of caveolae challenges our basic instincts about the cell. CONTENTS

Membrane lateral heterogeneity is accepted as a requirement for the function of biological membranes and the notion of lipid rafts gives specificity to this broad concept. However, the lipid raft field is now at a technical impasse because the physical tools to study biological membranes as a liquid that is ordered in space and time are still being developed. This has lead to a disconnection between the concept of lipid rafts as derived from biochemical and biophysical assays and their existence in the cell. Here, we compare the concept of lipid rafts as it has emerged from the study of synthetic membranes with the reality of lateral heterogeneity in biological membranes. Further application of existing tools and the development of new tools are needed to understand the dynamic heterogeneity of biological membranes.

The surface membrane of cells is studded with morphologically distinct regions, or domains, like microvilli, cell-cell junctions, and coated pits. Each of these domains is specialized for a particular function, such as nutrient absorption, cell-cell communication, and endocytosis. Lipid domains, which include caveolae and rafts, are one of the least understood membrane domains. These domains are high in cholesterol and sphingolipids, have a light buoyant density, and function in both endocytosis and cell signaling. A major mystery, however, is how resident molecules are targeted to lipid domains. Here, we propose that the molecular address for proteins targeted to lipid domains is a lipid shell.

The clathrin-coated pit lattice is held onto the plasma membrane by an integral membrane protein that binds the clathrin AP-2 subunit with high affinity. In vitro studies have suggested that this protein controls the assembly of the pit because membrane bound AP-2 is required for lattice assembly. If so, the AP-2 binding site must be a resident protein of the coated pit and recycle with other receptors that enter cells through this pathway. Proper recycling, however, would require the switching off of AP-2 binding to allow the binding site to travel through the endocytic pathway unencumbered. Evidence for this hypothesis has been revealed by the cationic amphiphilic class of drugs (CAD), which have previously been found to inhibit receptor recycling. Incubation of human fibroblasts in the presence of these drugs caused clathrin lattices to assemble on endosomal membranes and at the same time prevented coated pit assembly at the cell surface. These effects suggest that CADs reverse an on/off switch that controls AP-2 binding to membranes. We conclude that cells have a mechanism for switching on and off AP-2 binding during the endocytic cycle.

Proteins and peptides can enter cells by receptor-mediated endocytosis, a coupled process by which selected extracellular proteins or peptides are first bound to specific cell surface receptors and then rapidly internalised by the cell. Internalisation follows clustering of the receptors in specialised regions of the cell surface called coated pits that invaginate to form intracellular coated vesicles. It is now recognised that receptor-mediated endocytosis has a fundamental role in the growth, nutrition and differentiation of animal cells.

Abstract. Two seemingly unrelated experimental treatments inhibit receptor mediated endocytosis: (a) depletion of intracellular K ÷ (Larkin, J. M., M. S. Brown, J. L. Goldstein, and R. G. W. Anderson. 1983. Cell. 33:273-285); and (b) treatment with hypertonic media (Daukas, G., and S. H. Zigmond. 1985. J. Cell Biol. 101:1673-1679. Since the former inhibits the formation of clathrin-coated pits (Larkin, J. M., W. D. Donzell, and R. G. W. Anderson. 1986. J. Cell Biol. 103:2619-2627, we were interested in determining whether hypertonic treatment has the same effect, and if so, why. Fibroblasts (human or chicken) were incubated in normal saline made hypertonic with 0.45 M sucrose, then broken open by sonication and freezeetched to generate replicas of their inner membrane surfaces. Whereas untreated cells display typical geodesic lattices of clathrin under each coated pit, hypertonic cells display in addition a number of empty clathrin "microcages'. At first, these appear around the edges of normal coated pit lattices. With further time in hypertonic medium, however, normal lattices largely disappear and are replaced by accumulations of microcages. Concomitantly, low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors lose their normal clustered distribution and become dispersed all over the cell surface, as seen by fluorescence microscopy and freeze-etch electron microscopy of LDL attached to the cell surface. Upon return to normal medium at 37°C, these changes promptly reverse. Within 2 min, small clusters of LDL reappear on the surfaces of cells and normal clathrin lattices begin to reappear inside; the size and number of these receptor/clathrin complexes returns to normal over the next 10 min. Thus, in spite of their seeming unrelatedness, both K ÷ depletion and hypertonic treatment cause coated pits to disappear, and both induce abnormal clathrin polymerization into empty microcages. This suggests that in both cases, an abnormal formation of microcages inhibits endocytosis by rendering clathrin unavailable for assembly into normal coated pits. C LATHRIN coated pits are the primary plasma membrane specialization involved in the uptake of a wide variety of molecules by receptor-mediated endocytosis (4, 38). Two broad functions have been attributed to these regions of membrane: (a) molecular determinants associated with the clathrin lattice may cause receptors to become clustered; and (b) the clathrin lattice may in some way control the invagination of the membrane to form endocytic vesicles. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying these two aspects of coated pit function, one approach is to search for treatments that inhibit endocytosis and then to characterize the effects of these treatments on coated pit structure and receptor clustering.Currently, three experimental treatments are known to inhibit receptor-mediated endocytosis: (a) depletion of intracellular potassium (22, 24-26, 29, 30, 34, 40), (b) exposure of cells to hypertonic media (10), and (c) acidification of the cytoplasm (11,16, 21,41). Whereas potassi...

Current methods for purifying caveolae from tissue culture cells take advantage of the Triton X-100 insolubility of this membrane domain. To circumvent the use of detergents, we have developed a method that depends upon the unique buoyant density of caveolae membrane. The caveolae fractions that we obtain are highly enriched in caveolin. As a consequence we are able to identify caveolae-associated proteins that had previously gone undetected. Moreover, resident caveolae proteins that are soluble in Triton X-100 are retained during the isolation.