Interactions between caveolin-1 and sphingolipids, and their functional relevance

Caveolin-1 (CAV-1) is the pivot of a very complex network of interactions that are able to regulate the composition of CAV-1-signaling complexes, the lateral organization of CAV-1 with other molecules within the plasma membrane and the equilibrium between different cellular pools of CAV-1, switching on and off CAV-1- mediated biological events depending on the specific context. The role of sphingolipids in this scenario is very important: sphingolipids can affect CAV-1-mediated biological events due to their multifaceted liaison with caveolin-1. In this review, we discuss the role of CAV-1 as a molecular organizer and in particular we focus on the influence of sphingolipids on this role.