Glycolipid-enriched caveolae and caveolae-like domains in the nervous system

Recent years have been characterized by a booming interest in research on c aveolae and caveolae-like membrane domains. The interest in this subject gr ew further, when their involvement in fundamental membrane-associated event s, such as signal transmission and lipid/protein sorting, was postulated. S ubstantial progress has been reached in understanding the biological role o f membrane domains in eukaryotic cells. The neuron, however, which perhaps represents one of the greatest challenges to research on membrane traffic a nd function, has only been partially investigated. The purpose of the prese nt review is to survey this issue in the nervous system. We confine ourselv es to the presence of membrane domains in the nervous system and discuss th is in the context of three facts: first, glycolipids are peculiarly enriche d in both caveolae and caveolae-like domains and are particularly abundant in the nervous system; second, the neuron is characterized by a basic dual polarity, similar in this respect to other polarized cells, where the role of glycolipid-enriched domains for lipid/protein sorting has been better as certained; and third, neurons evolved from, and are related to, simpler euk aryotic cells, allowing us to find analogies with more investigated nonneur onal cells.