Imaging cytoplasmic lipid droplets in vivo with fluorescent perilipin 2 and perilipin 3 knock-in zebrafish
Abstract
Cytoplasmic lipid droplets are highly dynamic storage organelles that are critical for cellular lipid homeostasis. While the molecular details of lipid droplet dynamics are a very active area of investigation, this work has been primarily performed in cultured cells. Taking advantage of the powerful transgenic and in vivo imaging opportunities available in zebrafish, we built a suite of tools to study lipid droplets in real-time from the subcellular to the whole organism level. Fluorescently tagging the lipid-droplet-associated proteins, perilipin 2 and perilipin 3, in the endogenous loci permits visualization of lipid droplets in the intestine, liver, and adipose tissue. Using these tools, we found that perilipin 3 is rapidly loaded on intestinal lipid droplets following a high-fat meal and later replaced by perilipin 2. These powerful new tools will facilitate studies on the role of lipid droplets in different tissues, under different genetic and physiological manipulations, and in a variety of human disease models.
Data availability
All data generated during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files; Source Data files have been provided for Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (R01 DK093399)
- Steven Arthur Farber
National Institutes of Health (R01 GM63904)
- Stephen C Ekker
- Steven Arthur Farber
National Institutes of Health (F32DK109592)
- Meredith H Wilson
G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation
- Steven Arthur Farber
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All procedures using zebrafish (Danio rerio) were approved by the Carnegie Institution Department of Embryology Animal Care and Use Committee (Protocol #139).
Copyright
© 2021, Wilson et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Further reading
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- Cell Biology
- Medicine
Background:
It has been reported that loss of PCBP2 led to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and accelerated cell aging. Knockdown of PCBP2 in HCT116 cells leads to significant downregulation of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). Here, we tried to elucidate the intrinsic factors and potential mechanisms of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) aging from the interactions among PCBP2, ROS, and FGF2.
Methods:
Unlabeled quantitative proteomics were performed to show differentially expressed proteins in the replicative senescent human bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (RS-hBMSCs). ROS and FGF2 were detected in the loss-and-gain cell function experiments of PCBP2. The functional recovery experiments were performed to verify whether PCBP2 regulates cell function through ROS/FGF2-dependent ways.
Results:
PCBP2 expression was significantly lower in P10-hBMSCs. Knocking down the expression of PCBP2 inhibited the proliferation while accentuated the apoptosis and cell arrest of RS-hBMSCs. PCBP2 silence could increase the production of ROS. On the contrary, overexpression of PCBP2 increased the viability of both P3-hBMSCs and P10-hBMSCs significantly. Meanwhile, overexpression of PCBP2 led to significantly reduced expression of FGF2. Overexpression of FGF2 significantly offset the effect of PCBP2 overexpression in P10-hBMSCs, leading to decreased cell proliferation, increased apoptosis, and reduced G0/G1 phase ratio of the cells.
Conclusions:
This study initially elucidates that PCBP2 as an intrinsic aging factor regulates the replicative senescence of hBMSCs through the ROS-FGF2 signaling axis.
Funding:
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82172474).