Development and Characterization of a Specific Anti-Caveolin-1 Antibody for Caveolin-1 Functional Study in Human, Goat and Mouse

Caveolin-l of the caveolin family of proteins regulates mammary gland development and has been shown to play a contradictory role in breast tumor progression. A specific anti-Caveolin-l antibody will be useful for functional study of Caveolin-l in different tissues. In this study, we generated a rabbit polyclonal antibody that specifically recognizes the N-terminal amino acids 50-65 of Caveolin-l. This polyclonal antibody specifically reacted with Caveolin-l extracted from cells of different species, including human epithelial A431 cells, goat primary mammary epithelial cells and mice fibroblast NIH 3T3 cells, by Western blotting. Endogenous Caveolin-l protein expressing in cells and normal human tissues was detected by this polyclonal antibody using immunocytofluorescent and immunohistochemical staining, respectively. Furthermore, an apparent decrease in Caveolin-l expression in tumorous breast and colon tissues was detected by this polyclonal antibody. In conclusion, we have identified amino acids 50-65 of Caveolin-l, which contains an epitope that is specific to Caveolin-l and is conserved in the human, goat and mouse. In future, this anti-Caveolin-l antibody can be used to examine the progression of breast and colon cancers and to study functions of Caveolin-l in human, goat and mouse cells.