title: Molecular probes to visualize the location, organization and dynamics of lipids.
abstract: Cellular lipids play crucial roles in the cell, including in energy storage, the formation of cellular membranes, and in signaling and vesicular trafficking. To understand the functions and characteristics of lipids within cells, various methods to image lipids have been established. In this Commentary, we discuss the four main types of molecular probes that have significantly contributed to our understanding of the cell biology of lipids. In particular, genetically encoded biosensors and antibodies will be discussed, and how they have been used extensively with traditional light and electron microscopy to determine the subcellular localization of lipids and their spatial and temporal regulation. We highlight some of the recent studies that have investigated the distribution of lipids and their ability to cluster using super-resolution and electron microscopy. We also examine methods for analyzing the movement and dynamics of lipids, including single-particle tracking (SPT), fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). Although the combination of these lipid probes and the various microscopic techniques is very powerful, we also point out several potential caveats and limitations. Finally, we discuss the need for new probes for a variety of phospholipids and cholesterol.
authors.affiliation: Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5S 1T8, Canada.
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maekawa
authors.affiliation: Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5S 1T8, Canada Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 1P5, Canada Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Science Technology (iBEST) at Ryerson University and St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada fairng@smh.ca.
authors.forename: Gregory D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Fairn
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron / Q000379:methods; D015335:Molecular Probes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids; D015335:Molecular Probes
keywords: Electron microscopy; Imaging; Lipid; Super-resolution