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Sizing lipid droplets from adult and geriatric mouse liver tissue via nanoparticle tracking analysis

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Abstract

The significance of lipid droplets in lipid metabolism, cell signaling, and regulating longevity is increasingly recognized, yet the lipid droplet’s unique properties and architecture make it difficult to size and study using conventional methods. To begin to address this issue, we demonstrate the capabilities of nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) for sizing of lipid droplets. NTA was found to be adequate to assess lipid droplet stability over time, indicating that lipid droplet preparations are stable for up to 24 h. NTA had the ability to compare the size distributions of lipid droplets from adult and geriatric mouse liver tissue, suggesting an age-related decrease in lipid droplet size. This is the first report on the use of NTA to size intracellular organelles.

Light scattering reveals the temporal positions of individual lipid droplets, which are recorded with a camera. The two-dimensional diffusion constant of each lipid droplet is extracted from the data set, which is then used to calculate a hydrodynamic radius using the Stokes-Einstein equation.

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Funding

This work was supported by NIH AG020866. KAM acknowledges support through a University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship and National Institutes of Health (NIH) AG029796. CPN acknowledges support from NIH DK007203. NML acknowledges support from NIH GM008700. DGM acknowledges support from NIH DK114401 and NIH AG055452. A portion of this work was carried out in the Minnesota Nano Center, which receives partial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the NNCI program. A portion of this work was carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from NSF through the MRSEC program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics, University of Minnesota, 321 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Katherine A. Muratore, Charles P. Najt, Douglas G. Mashek & Edgar A. Arriaga

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, 207 Pleasant St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Nicholas M. Livezey & Edgar A. Arriaga

  3. Minnesota Nano Center, University of Minnesota, 115 Union St. SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    James Marti

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  1. Katherine A. Muratore
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  6. Edgar A. Arriaga
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Correspondence to Edgar A. Arriaga.

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All mice were housed in a designated clean facility and treated in accordance with protocols approved by the University of Minnesota Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

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The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Muratore, K.A., Najt, C.P., Livezey, N.M. et al. Sizing lipid droplets from adult and geriatric mouse liver tissue via nanoparticle tracking analysis. Anal Bioanal Chem 410, 3629–3638 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-018-1016-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-018-1016-8

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