Molecular and Functional Characterization of Caveolae in Mixed Cultures of Human NT-2 Neurons and Astrocytes
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Caveolae are plasma membrane invaginations that are enriched in cholesterol-binding proteins called caveolins. The presence of caveolae and caveolins in mixed cultures of human neurons and glia has not been investigated. Here, we sought to determine the presence of caveolae and caveolins in human NTera-2 (NT2/D1) cells, differentiated with retinoic acid into neuron-like (NT2/N) and astrocyte-like (NT2/A) cells. We found that while caveolin-3 mRNA levels remained relatively constant, caveolin-1 and -2 levels were upregulated in NT2/A and downregulated in NT2/N. No caveolin-1 immunoreactivity was detected in NT2/N. Electron microscopy revealed numerous flask-shaped invaginations (~86–102 nm in diameter) in the plasma membrane of NT2/A and NT2/N cells, while only few were detected in NT2/D1 cells. Immunoelectron microscopy localized caveolin-1 gold particles in the flask-shaped structures on plasmalemma and cytoplasmic vesicles of NT2/A cells. Furthermore, NT2/A endocytosed Alexa 488 conjugated-cholera toxin B subunit (CTX-B) through a caveolae- and clathrin-dependent pathway, whereas NT2/N endocytosed CTX-B through a caveolae-independent pathway. We have established that while NT2/A expressed functional caveolae, the molecular identity of the plasma membrane invaginations in NT2/N is unknown. The expression of caveolin proteins was differentially regulated in these cells. Taken together, our findings support the usefulness of the human NT2 model system to study the role of caveolins in neuron–glia communication, and their involvement in brain health and disease.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".