Isolation and proteomic study of fish liver lipid droplets

Abstract

Lipid droplets (LDs) are a neutral lipid storage organelle that is conserved in almost all species. Excessive storage of neutral lipids in LDs is directly associated with many metabolic syndromes. Zebrafish is a better model animal for the study of LD biology due to its transparent embryonic stage compared to other organisms. However, the study of LDs in fish has been difficult due to the lack of specific LD marker proteins and the limitation of purification technology. In this paper, the purification and proteomic analysis of liver LDs of fish including zebrafish and Carassius auratus were performed for the first time. 259 and 267 proteins were identified respectively. Besides most of the identified proteins were reported in previous LD proteomes of mammals, indicating the similarity between mammal and fish LDs. We also identified many unique proteins of liver LDs in fish that are involved in the regulation of LD dynamics. Through morphological and biochemical analysis, we found that the marker protein Plin2 of zebrafish LD was located on LDs in Huh7 cells. These results will facilitate further study of LDs in fish and liver metabolic diseases using fish as a model animal.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Lipid droplet / Fish / Liver / Proteomics / Plin2

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFA0800700 and 2018YFA0800900) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (32170787, 91857201, 91954108 and 32100557).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2023 The Author(s)