Figure 4.

Expression of caveolin-1 in mice as a transgene. (A) The caveolin-1 transgenic expression cassette. The full-length untagged cDNA encoding murine caveolin-1 was subcloned into the expression vector pCAGGS. Note that in the pCAGGS-Cav-1 construct, the CMV enhancer, and the β-actin promoter sequence are located upstream of the caveolin-1 cDNA, whereas the rabbit β-globin poly(A) sequence is located downstream. The CMV enhancer/β-actin promoter sequences are expected to drive constitutive expression of caveolin-1 in a wide variety of tissue types. (B) Tissue distribution of caveolin-1 transgene expression. The expression of caveolin-1 in normal control mice (CTL) and caveolin-1 transgenic mice (Cav-1) is shown. Protein lysates were prepared from a variety of mouse tissues. Immunoblotting was performed with a monospecific antibody probe that recognizes only caveolin-1 (mAb 2297). Note that the expression of caveolin-1, in caveolin-1 transgenic mice, is significantly higher compared with the endogenous expression in normal control mice in all tissues examined.