Recent advances in fluorescent probes for lipid droplets

Lipid droplets (LDs) have been known as a non-negligible cellular organelle for lipid storage and metabolism. Fluorescent probes for imaging LDs would be paramount for depicting their functions in cells....

A Novel Photosensitizer for Lipid Droplet–Location Photodynamic Therapy

Lipid droplets (LDs), an extremely important cellular organelle, are responsible for the storage of neutral lipids in multiple biological processes, which could be a potential target site for photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer. Herein, a lipid droplet–targeted photosensitizer (BODSeI) is developed, allowing for fluorescence imaging–guided PDT. Owing to the location of lipid droplets, BODSeI demonstrates enhanced PDT efficiency with an extremely low IC50 value (around 125 nM). Besides, BODSeI shows good biocompatibility and high photostability. Therefore, BODSeI is promising for droplet-location PDT, which may trigger wide interest for exploring the pathway of lipid droplet–location PDT.

Three-dimensional imaging on a chip using optofluidics light-sheet fluorescence microscopy

Volumetric, sub-micron to micron level resolution imaging is necessary to assay phenotypes or characteristics at the sub-cellular/organelle scale. However, three-dimensional fluorescence imaging of cells is typically low throughput or compromises...

The caveolar-mitochondrial interface: regulation of cellular metabolism in physiology and pathophysiology

The plasma membrane is an important cellular organelle that is often overlooked in terms of a primary factor in regulating physiology and pathophysiology. There is emerging evidence to suggest that the plasma membrane serves a greater purpose than a simple barrier or transporter of ions. New paradigms suggest that the membrane serves as a critical bridge to connect extracellular to intracellular communication particularly to regulate energy and metabolism by forming physical and biochemical associations with intracellular organelles. This review will focus on the relationship of a particular membrane microdomain — caveolae — with mitochondria and the particular implication of this to physiology and pathophysiology.

Hereditary Metabolic Diseases

This chapter describes and illustrates the morphological central nervous system changes in hereditary metabolic disorders. In some disorders, the metabolic derangements are most prominent in the cytosol and are linked to the dysfunction of a single cellular organelle. In these disorders, there may be intracellular accumulation of an intermediate metabolite, resulting in “storage” or accumulation of the abnormal substance within the cell. The organelles most commonly involved in these disorders are lysosomes, peroxisomes, mitochondria, and the cytoplasmic compartment. Other disorders are defined by an enzyme deficiency; by the biochemical pathways involved (metabolic disorders of sugars, copper, amino acids, or structural protein); or only by morphologic/clinical features.