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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Lipid Droplet Isolation for Quantitative Mass Spectrometry Analysis
Published on: April 17, 2017
Proteins under new management: lipid droplets deliver
1Rosenstiel Biomedical Research Center and Department of Biology, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA 02454, USA. michael.welte@rochester.edu
Abstract:
Lipid droplets are ubiquitous organelles that store neutral lipids and have crucial roles in lipid metabolism. Recent studies have uncovered many examples of lipid droplets recruiting proteins from other cellular compartments, in a cell type-specific and regulated manner. Some droplet-recruited proteins are destined for destruction, whereas others are released and reused when conditions change. Droplets might therefore have a general role in managing the availability of proteins, and they have been proposed to serve as generic sites of protein sequestration. The implications of this emerging role of lipid droplets include regulated inactivation of proteins, prevention of toxic protein aggregates and localized delivery of signaling molecules.
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