topography of lipid droplet-associated proteins insights from freeze-fracture replica immunogold labeling地形的脂质droplet-associated从标签然后冷冻断裂副本电镜下观察蛋白质的见解.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Lipids Volume 2011, Article ID 409371, 10 pages doi:10.1155/2011/409371 Review Article Topography of Lipid Droplet-Associated Proteins: Insights from Freeze-Fracture Replica Immunogold Labeling Horst Robenek,1 Insa Buers,1 Mirko J. Robenek,1 Oliver Hofnagel,1 Anneke Ruebel,1 David Troyer,1 and Nicholas J. Severs2 1 Leibniz Institute for Arteriosclerosis Research, University M¨unster, Domagkstr. 3, 48419 M¨unster, Germany 2 Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London SW3 6LY, UK Correspondence should be addressed to Horst Robenek, robenek@uni-muenster.de Received 12 October 2010; Accepted 23 November 2010 Academic Editor: Rumiana Koynova Copyright © 2011 Horst Robenek et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Lipid droplets are not merely storage depots for superfluous intracellular lipids in times of hyperlipidemic stress, but metabolically active organelles involved in cellular homeostasis. Our concepts on the metabolic functions of lipid droplets have come from studies on lipid droplet-associated proteins. This realization has made the study of proteins, such as PAT family proteins, caveolins, and several others that are targeted to lipid droplets, an intriguing and rapidly developing area of intensive inquiry. Our existing understanding of the structure, protein organization, and biogenesis of the lipid droplet has relied heavily on microscopical techniques that lack resolution and the ability to preserve native cellular and protein composition. Freeze-fracture replica immunogold labeling overcomes these disadv