Speaker
Description
Lipid droplets (LDs) are intracellular lipid storage organelles. Recently, we showed that adult mouse neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) contain a large number of LDs, which directly influence NSPC proliferation and metabolism. To further study LDs in the brain, we have developed a novel endogenous fluorescent LD reporter mouse (tdTom-Plin2 mouse) to allow staining-free visualization of LDs. We have demonstrated that LDs are highly abundant in various cell types in the healthy adult brain, and we also found numerous LDs in the developing brain. Furthermore, adding lipids to the medium of ex vivo embryonic brain sections resulted in increased LDs. This suggests that the build-up, breakdown, and storage of lipids in LDs might play an important role in NSPC regulation during brain development. However, very little is known about how LDs influence mouse brain development and their role in human brain development is even less explored.
We here use the novel tdTom-Plin2 mouse to characterize the distribution and dynamics of LDs over a developmental time-course. Using genetic and pharmacological means, we will further perturb LD usage and numbers and assess the consequences for brain development. We also utilize human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSCs) derived NSPCs and cerebral organoids to characterize and dissect the role of LDs in human brain development. These different model systems allow us to better understand the importance of LDs during early mouse and human brain development.
| Author(s) | Carla Marie Igelbüscher*, Daniel Sudria Lopez, Carlotta Gilardi, Marlen Knobloch |
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| Affiliation(s) | Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland |
