title: Visualization of sterol-rich membrane domains with fluorescently-labeled theonellamides.
abstract: Cholesterol plays important roles in biological membranes. The cellular location where cholesterol molecules work is prerequisite information for understanding their dynamic action. Bioimaging probes for cholesterol molecules would be the most powerful means for unraveling the complex nature of lipid membranes. However, only a limited number of chemical or protein probes have been developed so far for cytological analysis. Here we show that fluorescently-labeled derivatives of theonellamides act as new sterol probes in mammalian cultured cells. The fluorescent probes recognized cholesterol molecules and bound to liposomes in a cholesterol-concentration dependent manner. The probes showed patchy distribution in the plasma membrane, while they stained specific organelle in the cytoplasm. These data suggest that fTNMs will be valuable sterol probes for studies on the role of sterols in the biological membrane under a variety of experimental conditions.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Genomics Research Group, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Saitama, Japan ; Division of Bioinformatics and Chemical Genomics, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.affiliation: Lipid Biology Laboratory, RIKEN, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Kumiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.affiliation: Lipid Biology Laboratory, RIKEN, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Kunihiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iwamoto
authors.affiliation: Chemical Genomics Research Group, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Arita
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Aquatic Natural Products Chemistry, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsunaga
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Pharmacy, Iwaki Meisei University, Iwaki, Fukushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohno-Iwashita
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Low Temperature and Materials Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Division of Bioinformatics and Chemical Genomics, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kakeya
authors.affiliation: Lipid Biology Laboratory, RIKEN, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshihide
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.affiliation: Chemical Genomics Research Group, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshida
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000378:metabolism; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D042541:Intracellular Space / Q000378:metabolism; D057054:Molecular Imaging; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D013261:Sterols / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; D013261:Sterols; D002784:Cholesterol