Dissociation of Insulin Receptor Expression and Signaling from Caveolin-1 Expression

The presence of cell surface caveolin/caveolae has been postulated to influence the localization, expression levels, and kinase activity of numerous receptors, including the insulin receptor. However, there are conflicting data concerning the effects of caveolin on insulin receptor expression and function. To help clarify this issue, we created a gain of function situation by expressing caveolin-1 at various levels in HEK-293 cells where the endogenous level of caveolin-1 is very low. We generated four permanent lines of this cell expressing amounts of caveolin-1 ranging from 10 to 40 times that of parental cells. The amount of caveolin-1 in the human embryonic kidney cells expressing the highest caveolin levels is comparable with that of adipocytes, cells that naturally express one of the highest levels of caveolin-1. We measured insulin receptor amount and insulin-dependent receptor autophosphorylation as well as insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1) tyrosine phosphorylation as an index of insulin signaling. We found that the insulin receptor level was essentially the same in the parental and all four derived cell lines. Likewise, we determined that insulin-dependent insulin receptor and IRS1 tyrosine phosphorylation was not significantly different in the four cell lines representing parental, low, medium, and high levels of caveolin-1 expression. We conclude that insulin receptor expression and ligand-dependent signaling is independent of caveolin-1 expression.