For the primary time, researchers have visually monitored, in excessive decision, the timing and site of fats storage throughout the intact cells of fruit flies. The brand new optical imaging instrument from the lab of bioengineering professor Lingyan Shi on the College of California San Diego is already getting used to untangle typically mentioned, but mysterious, hyperlinks between eating regimen and issues like weight problems, diabetes and getting old.The work from bioengineers on the UC San Diego Jacobs College of Engineering is revealed within the journal Growing older Cell.
The optical microscopy platform developed by the UC San Diego bioengineers is exclusive. It permits the researchers to visually observe, in excessive decision inside fats cells, how particular dietary modifications have an effect on the way in which flies flip the power from their meals into fats. The instrument additionally permits the researchers to observe the reverse course of of fixing fats again into power. As well as, the researchers can now visually monitor modifications in dimension in particular person fat-storage “containers” throughout the class of fruit fly cells that’s analogous to mammalian fats (adipose) cells.
Within the new paper in Growing older Cell, the researchers demonstrated the flexibility to visually observe modifications in fats (lipid) metabolism in flies after they had been placed on a variety of various diets. The diets included calorie-restricted diets, excessive protein diets, and diets with twice, four-times, and ten-times the sugar of a typical eating regimen.
“With our new optical microscopy system, we are able to see each the place and when fat are being put into storage and brought out of storage,” stated Shi, the bioengineering professor at UC San Diego who’s the corresponding senior creator on the brand new paper. “That is the primary imaging expertise that may visualize fats metabolism at excessive decision in each house and time inside particular person fats cells. Now we have demonstrated that we are able to see each the place and when lipid metabolism modifications inside particular person fruit fly fats physique cells in response to dietary modifications.”
“Curiosity in optimizing the human eating regimen is intense,” Shi continued. “Folks need solutions to questions like, ‘What are the perfect diets to sluggish getting old? What are the perfect diets for shedding pounds? What are the perfect diets for extending well being span?’ I do not but have solutions to those questions, however in my lab, we develop new applied sciences which are getting us nearer to answering among the huge dietary questions on the market.”
Within the new work in Growing older Cell, for instance, the researchers report a brand new option to reply questions like:
How a lot does a selected eating regimen, reminiscent of a high-protein eating regimen, or a high-sugar eating regimen, or a calorie-restricted eating regimen, alter a fruit fly’s means of turning power from meals into fats? And the way a lot do these similar diets have an effect on a fruit fly’s means of turning fats again into power?
“We developed this instrument to assist us untangle the relationships between eating regimen and phenomena like weight problems, diabetes, getting old, and longevity,” stated Shi.
Monitoring the scale of fats droplets inside intact fruit fly cells is one instance of what is attainable with the brand new visualization platform.
“Droplet dimension is a option to observe how a lot of the saved fats is ‘turning over’ or getting transformed again into power. This is a crucial facet of lipid metabolism, and we now have a instrument that permits us to trace modifications within the dimension of particular lipid droplets inside particular person cells of fruit flies,” stated Yajuan Li, MD. PhD, who’s a postdoctoral researcher within the Shi lab at UC San Diego and the primary creator on the paper in Growing older Cell.
Heavy water
The brand new visualization platform builds on a few of Shi’s earlier work utilizing a variation on common water, referred to as heavy water or (D2O). Heavy water is, actually, heavier than common water. Heavy water molecules comprise one oxygen atom like common water. However instead of the pair of hydrogen atoms — the “H2” in “H20” — heavy water comprises a pair of heavier deuterium atoms.
Like “common” water, heavy water is freely integrated into cells in dwelling organisms. So when the researchers present heavy water to a fruit fly, after which that fruit fly begins to transform power from its meals into fats molecules to be saved, a few of these fats molecules comprise deuterium. On this manner, the prevalence of deuterium atoms in lipids saved throughout the fats cells of fruit flies offers a option to measure how a lot fats that fly has saved.
By altering a fly’s eating regimen on the similar time that you simply introduce heavy water, you’ve got a option to monitor how the eating regimen modifications lipid turnover. Extra particulars on how the system works are on this 2021 profile, wherein Shi stated, “After we are creating a brand new expertise, a brand new instrument, it’s going to undoubtedly encourage us to ask new organic questions.”
In the case of understanding the connections between eating regimen composition and lipid metabolism, the brand new organic questions are bringing researchers again to among the oldest and most intriguing questions on hyperlinks between eating regimen and weight problems, diabetes, getting old and longevity.
NIH, Grant/Award Quantity: U54 pilot grant 2U54CA132378; Jacobs College of Engineering, College of California San Diego; Hellman Fellow Award from UC San Diego