Potential of BODIPY-cholesterol for analysis of cholesterol transport and diffusion in living cells.
Cholesterol is an abundant and important lipid component of cellular membranes. Analysis of cholesterol transport and diffusion in living cells is hampered by the technical challenge of designing suitable cholesterol probes which can be detected for example by optical microscopy. One strategy is to use intrinsically fluorescent sterols, as dehydroergosterol (DHE), having minimal chemical alteration compared to cholesterol but giving low fluorescence signals in the UV region of the spectrum. Alternatively, one can use dye-tagged cholesterol analogs and in particular BODIPY-cholesterol (BChol), whose synthesis and initial characterization was pioneered by Robert Bittman. Here, we give a general overview of the properties and applications but also limitations of BODIPY-tagged cholesterol probes for analyzing intracellular cholesterol trafficking. We describe our own experiences and collaborative efforts with Bob Bittman for studying diffusion in the plasma membrane (PM) and uptake of BChol in a quantitative manner. For that purpose, we used a variety of fluorescence approaches including fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and its imaging variants, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) and fluorescence loss in photobleaching (FLIP). We also describe pulse-chase studies from the PM using BChol in direct comparison to DHE. Based on the gathered imaging data, we present a two-step kinetic model for sterol transport between PM and recycling endosomes. In addition, we highlight the suitability of BChol for determining transport of lipoprotein-derived sterol using electron microscopy (EM) and show that this approach ideally complements fluorescence studies.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark. Electronic address: wuestner@bmb.sdu.dk.
Daniel
D
Wüstner
Department of Biochemistry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY 1200, USA.
Frederik W
FW
Lund
Department of Medical Chemistry, Center for Pathobiochemistry and Genetics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Clemens
C
Röhrl
Department of Medical Chemistry, Center for Pathobiochemistry and Genetics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Herbert
H
Stangl
D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D001896:Boron Compounds / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D002470:Cell Survival; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D004058:Diffusion; D011992:Endosomes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans
C095489:4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene; D001896:Boron Compounds; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D002784:Cholesterol
Cholesterol; Diffusion; FLIP; FRAP; Fluorescence; Membrane; Transport; Vesicle