Journal Article

A fluorescent perilipin 2 knock-in mouse model reveals a high abundance of lipid droplets in the developing and adult brain

Madsen, Sofia, Magrinelli, Elia, Jabaudon, Denis, Battiston, Fabrice, Telley, Ludovic, Doetsch, Fiona, Delgado, Ana C., De Neck, Simon, Igelbüscher, Carla Marie, Knobloch, Marlen, Maillard, Vanille, Cadilhac, Christelle

2024

Overview

Lipid droplets (LDs) are dynamic lipid storage organelles. They are tightly linked to metabolism and can exert protective functions, making them important players in health and disease. Most LD studies in vivo rely on staining methods, providing only a snapshot. We therefore developed a LD-reporter mouse by labelling the endogenous LD coat protein perilipin 2 (PLIN2) with tdTomato, enabling staining-free fluorescent LD visualisation in living and fixed tissues and cells. Here we validate this model under standard and high-fat diet conditions and demonstrate that LDs are highly abundant in various cell types in the healthy brain, including neurons, astrocytes, ependymal cells, neural stem/progenitor cells and microglia. Furthermore, we also show that LDs are abundant during brain development and can be visualized using live imaging of embryonic slices. Taken together, our tdTom-Plin2 mouse serves as a novel tool to study LDs and their dynamics under both physiological and diseased conditions in all tissues expressing Plin2. Here the authors describe a fluorescent lipid droplet reporter mouse, which allows the staining-free detection of these important lipid-storing organelles. Using this model, they show that LDs are highly abundant in the developing and adult brain.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 13 / 14 / 38 / 631/378 / 631/443/319/2723 / 64 / 64/110 / Animals / Astrocytes / Astrocytes - metabolism / Brain / Brain - metabolism / Brain slice preparation / Cells (biology) / Coat protein / Diet, High-Fat / Droplets / Embryogenesis / Ependymal cells / Female / Fluorescence / Gene Knock-In Techniques / High fat diet / Humanities and Social Sciences / In vivo methods and tests / Labeling / Lipid Droplets - metabolism / Lipid metabolism / Lipids / Luminescent Proteins - genetics / Luminescent Proteins - metabolism / Male / Mice / Mice, Inbred C57BL / Mice, Transgenic / Microglia / Microglia - metabolism / multidisciplinary / Neural stem cells / Neural Stem Cells - cytology / Neural Stem Cells - metabolism / Neuroimaging / Neurons - metabolism / Organelles / Perilipin-2 - genetics / Perilipin-2 - metabolism / Progenitor cells / Protein turnover / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Staining / Storage