Astrocyte endfeet surrounding blood vessels are active domains involved in water and potassium ion transport crucial to the maintenance of water and potassium ion homeostasis in brain. A growing body of evidence points to a role for dystroglycan and its interaction with perivascular laminin in the targeting of the dystrophin complex and the water-permeable channel, aquaporin 4 (AQP4), at astrocyte endfeet. However, the mechanisms underlying such compartmentalization remain poorly understood. In the present study we found that AQP4 resided in Triton X-100-insoluble fraction, whereas dystroglycan was recovered in the soluble fraction in astrocytes. Cholesterol depletion resulted in the translocation of a pool of AQP4 to the soluble fraction indicating that its distribution is indeed associated with cholesterol-rich membrane domains. Upon laminin treatment AQP4 and the dystrophin complex, including dystroglycan, reorganized into laminin-associated clusters enriched for the lipid raft markers GM1 and flotillin-1 but not caveolin-1. Reduced diffusion rates of GM1 in the laminin-induced clusters were indicative of the reorganization of raft components in these domains. In addition, both cholesterol depletion and dystroglycan silencing reduced the number and area of laminininduced clusters of GM1, AQP4, and dystroglycan. These findings demonstrate the interdependence between laminin binding to dystroglycan and GM1-containing lipid raft reorganization and provide novel insight into the dystrophin complex regulation of AQP4 polarization in astrocytes.The basement membrane is a specialized extracellular matrix (ECM) 2 composed of collagen, fibronectin, perlecan, agrin, and laminin. Several studies have focused on the involvement of these ECM molecules in the formation and maturation of neuromuscular junctions (1-4) and interneuronal synapses (5). More recently, much effort has been made by our group and others to understand the role of these molecules at the interface of astroglia and blood vessels (6 -8). Laminin is highly expressed at the perivascular ECM, and the laminin receptor, dystroglycan (␣-DG), together with many other components of the dystrophin-associated protein (DAP) complex, is particularly enriched at astrocyte endfeet abutting the blood vessels (9 -11). The binding of laminin to ␣-DG at these specialized astrocyte domains in brain plays a key role in the polarized distribution of components of the DAP complex (6, 12).Multiple lines of evidence indicate that the DAP complex is crucial for the functional distribution both of the water-permeable channel, AQP4, and the inwardly rectifying potassium channel, Kir4