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Updated: Jul 5, 2025

Isolation of Cellular Lipid Droplets: Two Purification Techniques Starting from Yeast Cells and Human Placentas
Published on: April 1, 2014
Functional interplay of lipid droplets and mitochondria
1Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland.
None:
Our body stores energy mostly in form of fatty acids (FAs) in lipid droplets (LDs). From there the FAs can be mobilized and transferred to peroxisomes and mitochondria. This transfer is dependent on close opposition of LDs and mitochondria and peroxisomes and happens at membrane contact sites. However, the composition and the dynamics of these contact sites is not well understood, which is in part due to the dependence on the metabolic state of the cell and on the cell- and tissue-type. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on the contacts between lipid droplets and mitochondria both in mammals and in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in which various contact sites are well studied. We discuss possible functions of the contact site and their implication in disease.
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