Figure 1. CIDEA promotes lipid droplet (LD) enlargement by transference of lipids.
(A) Live imaging of the LD dynamics during the differentiation of a brown pre-adipocyte, showing the characteristic CIDE-triggered LD enlargement, characterized by the progressive transference of lipids from a donor to an acceptor LD until it is completely absorbed. (B) Live imaging of the LD dynamics in an undifferentiated 3T3-L1 cell 6 hr after infection with adenoviral particles carrying the Cidea gene. Red arrows highlight the transient formation of irregularly shaped LD clusters, while yellow arrows mark the fusion of two droplets by transference of lipids. (C) CIDEA-v5 expression in Hela cells induces LD enlargement. An enrichment in CIDEA-v5 (red) can be observed in the contact site between two LDs (green). (D) Detail of LD fusion by slow transference of lipids in a 3T3-L1 cell stably expressing CIDEA-v5.