肝脏再生是与细胞轰动、脂质代谢和细胞分裂相一致的一种事先编排好的细胞应答。来自西班牙、澳大利亚和德国三国的科学家发现caveolin-1基因被破坏的小鼠模型（cav1–/–小鼠），其肝脏再生受损，并且在进行部分肝脏切除手术后的存活率也明显下降。这些发现公布在最新一期（9月15日）的《科学》杂志上。
这种特殊的小鼠模型的肝细胞中脂质液滴的聚集明显减少。当研究人员用葡萄糖（葡萄糖比脂质相比是一种占主导底物的能量物质）治疗这种小鼠时，小鼠手术后的存活吕显著上升，并且细胞周期进程再次变得稳定。
这些试验结果表明caveolin-1在协调脂质代谢和在细胞损伤发生后的肝脏中扩增应答（再生）的机制中起到关键作用。这种肝细胞再生的关键物质的发现，为提高肝脏切除患者存活率以及治疗肝脏疾病患者提供了一种可能的靶标。
部分英文原文：
Caveolin-1 Is Essential for Liver Regeneration
Liver regeneration is an orchestrated cellular response that coordinates cell activation, lipid metabolism, and cell division. We found that caveolin-1 gene–disrupted mice (cav1–/– mice) exhibited impaired liver regeneration and low survival after a partial hepatectomy. Hepatocytes showed dramatically reduced lipid droplet accumulation and did not advance through the cell division cycle. Treatment of cav1–/– mice with glucose (which is a predominant energy substrate when compared to lipids) drastically increased survival and reestablished progression of the cell cycle. Thus, caveolin-1 plays a crucial role in the mechanisms that coordinate lipid metabolism with the proliferative response occurring in the liver after cellular injury.
