title: Live-cell imaging demonstrates rapid cargo exchange between lipid droplets in adipocytes.
abstract: Lipid droplets form the storage reservoirs for lipids in adipocytes, and their stable appearance suggests a static nature of lipid storage. A stable lipid store, however, may be maintained through the dynamic recycling of lipid cargo between the cytoplasmic compartment and the lipid droplet. In this study, we applied live-cell microscopy to follow intracellular transport steps of fluorescently labeled fatty acids in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes. We demonstrate that intracellular lipids continuously exit and re-enter lipid droplets, and that individual lipid droplets exchange their content on a timescale of minutes. These data demonstrate a surprisingly high rate of intracellular lipid turnover in adipocytes and support the novel concept that lipid storage is achieved by dynamic recycling rather than static retention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, United States.
authors.forename: Romel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Somwar
authors.forename: Charles T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Oleg
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Varlamov
mesh_terms: D041721:3T3-L1 Cells; D017667:Adipocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism*; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D050356:Lipid Metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes