PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sofia Madsen
AU  - Ana C. Delgado
AU  - Christelle Cadilhac
AU  - Fabrice Battison
AU  - Vanille Maillard
AU  - Elia Magrinelli
AU  - Denis Jabaudon
AU  - Ludovic Telley
AU  - Fiona Doetsch
AU  - Marlen Knobloch
TI  - A fluorescent perilipin 2 knock-in mouse model visualizes lipid droplets in the developing and adult brain
AID  - 10.1101/2022.06.21.496932
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.06.21.496932
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/06/21/2022.06.21.496932.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/06/21/2022.06.21.496932.full
AB  - Lipid droplets (LDs) are dynamic lipid storage organelles. They are tightly linked to metabolism and can exert protective functions, making them important players in health and disease. Most LD studies in vivo rely on staining methods, providing only a snapshot. We therefore developed a LD-reporter mouse by endogenously labelling the LD coat protein perilipin 2 (PLIN2) with tdTomato, enabling staining-free fluorescent LD visualisation in living and fixed tissues and cells. Here we validate this model under standard and high-fat diet conditions and demonstrate that LDs are present in various cells in the healthy brain, including neurons, astrocytes, ependymal cells, neural stem/progenitor cells and microglia. Furthermore, we show that LDs are abundant during brain development and can be visualized using live-imaging of embryonic slices. Taken together, our tdTom-Plin2 mouse serves as a novel tool to study LDs and their dynamics under both physiological and diseased conditions in all tissues expressing Plin2.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.