Caveolin 1 and Caveolin 2 are associated with breast cancer basal-like and triple-negative immunophenotype

Abstract

Caveolin-1 (CAV1) and caveolin 2 (CAV2) are the principal structural proteins of caveolae, sphingolipid and cholesterol-rich invaginations of the plasma membrane involved in vesicular trafficking and signal transduction. Over the recent years there has been controversy about their role in breast cancer and their suitability as markers of basal-like phenotype. Caveolin-1 and CAV2 protein expression was assessed on a tissue microarray containing 880 unselected invasive breast cancer cases, by means of immunohistochemistry. Caveolin-1 and CAV2 expression was observed in 13.4 and 5.9% of all breast cancer, respectively. Their expression was strongly associated with high histological grade, lack of steroid hormone receptor positivity (ER and PR), and expression of basal markers (basal cytokeratins, P63, P-cadherin). Furthermore, there was a significant association between CAV1 and CAV2 expression and basal-like phenotype. On univariate analysis only CAV2 had a prognostic impact on breast cancer-specific survival; however, this was not independent from other traditional markers on multivariate analysis. Our results demonstrate that both CAV1 and CAV2 are associated with basal-like phenotype. Further studies are warranted to determine whether they play an oncogenic role in basal-like/triple-negative breast cancer development or are just surrogate markers for this subgroup.

Caveolin 1 knockdown inhibits the proliferation, migration and invasion of human breast cancer BT474 cells

“…It has been reported that the depletion of caveolin 1 decreased migration, polarization and focal adhesion in MDA-MB-231 cancer cells (basal-like phenotype) (10). This is consistent with another study, which demonstrated that caveolin 1 is highly associated with the breast cancer basal-like phenotype (11). In the present study, human breast cancer BT474 cells were used to analyze the role of caveolin 1 in BT474 cells.…”

BRCA1 mutations contribute to cell motility and invasion by affecting its main regulators

“…Several studies reported that the E-cadherin/catenin complex and P-cadherin, of the cell-cell adhesion family, as well as Caveolin-1 and Id-1 genes are important regulators in the progression of human breast carcinomas. [6][7][8][9] In contrast, the role of the BRCA1 gene in cell invasion and motility of human breast cancer cells is not clear.…”

“…1A and B). Furthermore, we investigated the expression pattern of E-cadherin, P-cadherin, Caveolin-1 and Id-1, which are important regulators of cell motility and invasion, [6][7][8][9] in these cell lines.…”

Immunohistochemical and molecular analysis of caveolin-1 expression in canine mammary tumors

“…Caveolae are enriched by sphingolipids and cholesterol (Zhu et al, 2008) and are directly involved in vesicular trafficking and signal transduction (Bouras et al, 2004;Chen et al, 2004;Elsheikh et al, 2008). Caveolae and caveolins have several functions including vesicular transport, cholesterol homeostasis, signal transduction, and tumor suppression (Bat'ová et al, 2003).…”