Molecular regulation and clinical significance of caveolin-1 methylation in chronic lung diseases.

Chronic lung diseases represent a largely global burden whose pathogenesis remains largely unknown. Research increasingly suggests that epigenetic modifications, especially DNA methylation, play a mechanistic role in chronic lung diseases. DNA methylation can affect gene expression and induce various diseases. Of the caveolae in plasma membrane of cell, caveolin-1 (Cav-1) is a crucial structural constituent involved in many important life activities. With the increasingly advanced progress of genome-wide methylation sequencing technologies, the important impact of Cav-1 DNA methylation has been discovered. The present review overviews the biological characters, functions, and structure of Cav-1; epigenetic modifications of Cav-1 in health and disease; expression and regulation of Cav-1 DNA methylation in the respiratory system and its significance; as well as clinical potential as disease-specific biomarker and targets for early diagnosis and therapy.