Caveolin-1 controls cell proliferation and cell death by suppressing expression of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein survivin.

Caveolin-1 is suggested to act as a tumor suppressor. We tested the hypothesis that caveolin-1 does so by repression of survivin, an Inhibitor of apoptosis protein that regulates cell-cycle progression as well as apoptosis and is commonly overexpressed in human cancers. Ectopic expression of caveolin-1 in HEK293T and ZR75 cells or siRNA-mediated silencing of caveolin-1 in NIH3T3 cells caused downregulation or upregulation of survivin mRNA and protein, respectively.